The Post-Charlottesville narrative has been one of the most despicable things I’ve ever witnessed over the course of many decades following politics. Here is Daniel Payne writing at The Federalist:
Why have the tragic events of Charlottesville transformed so many people into irresponsible, violent, censorious, and hysterical lunatics?
Pundits, journalists, politicians, clergy, law enforcement, sociologists—all may agree or disagree to varying degrees about what the Charlottesville mayhem of August 12 means for our country. Any number of interpretations could be useful and instructive. But above all Charlottesville has shown just how profoundly broken and destructively useless our media industry and political establishment really are. It is a genuine national embarrassment.
I do not say that lightly. I love this country; I love its rich history, its political traditions, its culture, its people. I love its religious backbone. I do not love the historical flaws of our country, but I love the ways we have righted them, and the great gifts we have given the world along the way: our priceless treasure trove of abolitionist literature, the Gettysburg Address, Letter From a Birmingham Jail, our brilliant Supreme Court decisions on any number of civil rights.
I love the United States. But I am deeply embarrassed for it, and I want it to do better than it has over the past few weeks.
It is not unsurprising that the events of Charlottesville—an awful combination of hatred, racism, toxic politics, paranoid factionalism, and political ineptitude—would stir our emotions and cause some people to do crazy things. But the responses from the media, politicians, countless individuals, and institutions has been nothing short of shamefully disastrous. However painful it may be, we should analyze what has been going on in the days since that terrible afternoon to learn from it and commit ourselves to doing better if and when, God forbid, this happens again.
Read more: The Federalist
Image credit: Cartoon by A.F. Branco.
