Fair comment or apologist for Nazis or Nazi himself?

Donald Trump has condemned the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" during clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters in Virginia.

In a speech, the US President did not specifically condemn the far-right groups who gathered in Charlottesville — including some carrying assault rifles and wearing paramilitary-style clothing — to protest about plans to remove a statue to Confederate General Robert E Lee.

Instead he appeared to apportion blame to all those involved in the fighting.

Statue controversy
In February, the city council narrowly voted to remove and sell the Robert E Lee statue, and to rename the park in which it stands from Lee Park to Emancipation Park. This was the culmination of a campaign to remove the statue started by a local high school student, Zyahna Bryant.

It was part of a wave of such removals of Confederate monuments across the south, which began after Dylann Roof massacred nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

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FriendlyBryan · 51-55, M

I have very little tolerance for The Idiot In Chief. He is the culmination of all that is wrong with this nation. He is proof that not only is racism alive and well in the USA, it is also string enough to elect its own president. He is a disgrace. He talks the talk, sometimes very well, and then humiliates himself daily on Twitter.

As for the violence in Virginia, my home state, I am conflicted. The racist bullshit that came out in favor of keeping the statue does have the legal and civil right to gather and protest. Those who opposed them have the same rights. That is came to violence is detestable even if it was predictable. I guess it's to be expected when you give people of such opposing viewpoints the right to gather on the same street and yell at each other.

I don't have a problem with tearing down or selling off these statues and monuments but I do worry that, in doing so, we are taking a huge risk. Those monuments serve not only to glorify the south (which is not gonna rise again!) but to remind us all of what happened. I'm not a fan of revisionist history and I do believe that if we erase the scar of our past we are doomed to repeat our mistakes.

I don't see these statues as epic testaments to a glorious past. I see them as disgraceful memorials to an odious time in our history that we cannot afford to forget.