ICYMI: Trump says 'many generals' think Robert E. Lee is 'their favorite general' pic.twitter.com/OD3GVPJ1Fs— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 28, 2019
In the Twitter clip from Reuters, above, President Trump is explaining his "fine people on both sides" bullshit regarding what happened in Charlottesville by not just performing revisionism on what he had said, but also on what the Charlottesville demo was about, who was there, and, weirdly, also what Confederate General Robert E. Lee was about. It's like revisionism Inception, where you can see multiple layers of fucked-up thinking about what he was trying to say, who he's trying to appease, and the hazy southern strategy Confederacy whitewash all going on, like a dream within a nightmare within a delusion.
I'm going to have to treat Trump's statement that "many generals" think Lee is their favorite is a fib on a par with Sarah Huckabee Sanders' claims regarding the "many" FBI personnel who told her they were grateful and whatnot about the Comey firing--it isn't based on anything. It's a weird embellishment on the idea that the March to Unite the Right was primarily about boosting history appreciation by being all misty-eyed about Lee statues coming down--but the fact that the posters and the speakers and all were noted white supremacists should serve to remind us that, well, the Confederacy and the lost cause Lee served was also all about white supremacy, and shit, that was not great! and also, fuck everyone who turned up, (except for the antifascists who let them know they were opposed) including the anti-Semites who went on about Jews, because how was that even about Civil War history, amirite?
What did Trump do back then? Pretend the real baddies were Antifa, who he doesn't mind condemning because, I guess, violence against fascists really tears him up inside? And Trump apologists like Dana Rohrabacher and the Dilbert guy just ran with that. But a girl died because a fucking fascist ran his car into a crowd (also injuring many others), and neo Confederates physically beat an African-American man nearly to death. Those people were not there for any good purpose in the first place, and let's get one thing right even if this was only and primarily about Confederate statues--General Lee wasn't such a winner.
This guy, right here, was a jumped-up Southern aristocrat who didn't just have slaves but tortured them, violated his oath as a US military officer to support treason in the defense of slavery, and is best memorialized by the seizing of his land to create a consecrated space for actual US heroes. Statues raised to memorialize the losers of the bloody secession attempt have always seemed like a nostalgia for the continuation of good ole dirty people-owning and feeling good about it. Brought to you by the same people who want voter suppression and still prefer law enforcement that overwhelmingly punishes poc's.
Biden struck a nerve by calling out Trump about this, and Trump reacted after his native (ist) reflexes. Good on Biden. Because Trump doesn't have a good answer for his behavior here and never ever will.
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