This weekend our nation was rocked by news of violence surrounding a white supremacist march and counter-march in Charlottesville, VA. Many on the right were quick to condemn, almost as quick as the media and the American left was to lay the blame at the feet of President Trump. The reason is the American left and the media are quick to call these groups "right-winged." That may be true when you talk about the European definition of "right-winged" which is synonymous with "authoritarianism."
In the America definition, this is false.
In the American experience, the "right" champions rugged individualism and rejects the idea that people are nothing more than a group they belong to.
These Nazis want the government to get rid of everyone not them (blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Catholics, etc) which requires a pretty big government accomplish their goals. This is preciously why conservative Republicans abhor big government. It is in totalitarian states, not Constitutional Republics, where people's rights to life, liberty, and property can be taken away because those in charge of the government define them as "inferior."
I received a very stark reminder of that when I visited the Auschwitz Concentration Camp this past summer. There, on the wall of the Dutch memorial to their victims of the Holocaust were the names of my great-great uncle, aunt, and their children. His sister, my great-grandmother, came to America. He didn't. He and his family died in Nazi gas chambers in the fall of 1943.
The left is not even immune to these types of protests at their own events as Cobb County Democratic State Representative Stacey Evans, a candidate for Georgia Governor, was shouted down at the progressive NetRoots Convention in Atlanta this weekend. These supporters of her Democratic Primary opponent, Stacey Abrams, carried signs and shouted messages like, "support black women."
Evans had to give up and leave the stage without being able to speak, but Abrams is refusing to condemn the actions of her supporters. Liberal State Senator Nan Orrock even took up for Abrams posting on her Facebook page, "[W]hy is Stacey Abrams expected to disavow a protest she did not organize? Whether you disagree with their actions or not, please understand that protestors <sic> make their own decisions to exercise the right to independently organize and act, particularly at a progressive conference for activists..."
Can you imagine the outrage if a Republican U.S. Senator made the same statement about Donald Trump and the white supremacists in Virginia?
This reminds me of the crickets from the left in 2002 when State Representative Billy McKinney, father of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, blamed her loss on the, "J-E-W-S." McKinney wasn't condemned, far from it. In fact, a portion of I-285 in Fulton and Cobb Counties is still named for him.
We are reminded it is the left which turns to scapegoats when their socialist policies fail to create the worker's paradise on Earth they have sold to their willing victims. That's why the path of socialism always eventually leads to the gulag and the concentration camp.
While Republicans should condemn and, in fact, are condemning, what is happening in our nation at the hands of domestic terrorists, and should name the names and the groups responsible, we should also be quick to add which side of the political spectrum this violence comes from, and it's not the American right, whose very DNA rejects the policy of hyphenated Americanism.
Just because they wear "MAGA" hats does not make them part of us any more than buying camouflage at a hunting store and sewing a patch that says "Army" onto the sleeve would make one a soldier.
Oh, and never forget, you can't spell "NAZI" without "National Socialism."
If you agree, and you have not joined the Cobb County Republican Party, then we need your help standing up for our freedoms and conservative, Republican values. Join or rejoin the Cobb GOP today! The invite a friend to join with you.
The above statement reflects my views and my views only and not necessarily the views of the other officers, leaders, and members of the Cobb County Republican Party.
Have a great Republican week!
Yours in Freedom,
Jason Shepherd
Chairman, Cobb GOP