Like the President: Rep. Steve Chabot has his “That being said” moment

Let me be clear – Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are scum. There is no place in America for them. There is no place in the Republican party for them. I don’t want their support. I don’t want their votes.

That being said, the Constitution guarantees the “right of the people peaceably to assemble”, whether the majority of us agrees with the point of view over which they’re assembling or not. Those racist idiots therefore had the right to gather and express their racist point of view in Charlottesville on Saturday, as loathsome as that point of view might have been. Likewise, the left-wing counter protesters, many of them helmeted, club-wielding acolytes of the so-called antifa (anti-fascists) movement, anarchists really, also had the Constitutional right to be there in Charlottesville on Saturday.

That is, up to the point that either side gets violent. Then they’re breaking the law, and deserve to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

And as an observer of this unfolding event on TV Saturday, it appeared to me that there were trouble-makers and thugs on both sides, pushing and shoving, striking out with sticks and clubs, hurling projectiles, and overall acting like jerks. And then some 20-year-old Hitler-loving punk from Ohio/Kentucky decided to use an automobile as a deadly weapon, and mow it into a crowd of people, killing one innocent young woman and injuring many others. What he did is despicable, criminal, and must also be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Since Saturday, President Trump has been receiving significant criticism for the words he used (or didn’t) in addressing the event as it unfolded. On Saturday Trump blamed “hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides.” On Monday he said more specifically that “racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

Should Trump have more specifically named the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists on Saturday? In my opinion, yes. However, had he done so, would The Left and much of the mainstream media have found some reason to criticize President Trump for the ugliness in Charlottesville anyway? In my opinion, absolutely. He will be the bad guy in virtually every story for the next 3 ½ or 7 ½ years. In order for The Left to win, they must destroy this President, and anyone who supports him. That’s just the way it is.