08-18-2017, 01:37 PM
Quite possibly the next Vice-President of the United States has something to say about President Trump's mealy-mouthed dismissal of the demonic evil that is the Alt Right:
Quote:Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke out Friday against President Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., warning that he had caused "the vast heart of America to mourn."
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Romney said that Trump's words blaming "many sides" for the violence were celebrated by white supremacists across the country, and he called on the president to issue a rare apology.
"Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn," Romney said Friday.
"What we heard is now the reality, and unless it is addressed by the president as such, with unprecedented candor and strength, there may commence an unraveling of our national fabric," he added.
Trump shocked the nation Tuesday when he said there were "very fine people" on both sides of a white supremacist rally in Virginia, accusing counterprotesters of gathering "without a permit."
Romney argued that Trump's words risked painting the entire country as racist, and warned that other nations would be less likely to come to our aid if they view the United States as a racist country.
"Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate; America's ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished," he added. "And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?"
The former GOP governor called on Trump to take "extreme" measures and apologize for his press conference in which he blamed "many sides" for the violence.
"The president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize," Romney said.
"Once and for all, he must definitively repudiate the support of David Duke and his ilk and call for every American to banish racists and haters from any and every association," he added.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.