Trump, the Debate, and the Proud Boys

Are the Proud Boys white supremacists, or just Western chauvinists?

We live in the West. America was built on Enlightenment values, and in fact America is unique in that regard. Western Europe adopted Enlightenment values, but none of the nations in Europe were designed and built on those values. Our nation was, from the ground up.

The criticism against our country is that we allowed slavery. Yes we did – right up until 1865 and the end of the Civil War. We then allowed Jim Crow, for another 100 years.

But the whole world allowed slavery until Thomas Jefferson stuck his middle finger up at the King of England, with the words “all men are created equal”. Also, we are hardly unique in having a racist past.

Vermont banned slavery shortly after the Declaration of Independence, and they were very open about their motivation: they were inspired by the phrase, “all men are created equal.” Other states followed suit.

King George did not like being told that “all men are created equal,” but England took it to heart, banning slavery throughout their empire, and then using their massive military might to start ending slavery outside their empire.

Yes – it took a civil war to end slavery here, but we were not one of the LAST countries to end slavery. We were one of the first. Slavery is no longer a thing because of Western Societies, and because of the Enlightenment.

Maybe we should not be so quick to knock ‘Western chauvinism.’

Ironically, the man who coined the phrase “all men are created equal” was also a slave owner. He also banned the Atlantic slave trade, putting us on a collision course with the Civil War.

The notion that African Americans are somehow less American than anyone else is absurd. If your ancestry includes antebellum slaves, that means your family has been here since at least 1807, and this country is at least as much yours as it is anyone else’s. Apparently the Proud Boys would be happy to have you as a member, or at least that is what they say publicly.

Somehow the political left has gone from calling racism racist, to calling anything not apologetic about Western Culture as being racist, all while allowing open racism against other groups. If you are a minority and you hate white people, the left is cool with that. If you are a minority and you hate other minorities, the left is cool with that. The left is not a movement that hates racism; the left is a movement that is quite literally built on it. If you really believe all men to be created equal (and women too – today we would say all PEOPLE are created equal), you are not a Democrat, because the Democratic Party does not believe that.

The Republicans believe that.

Our country has a pretty good grip on what constitutes ‘too far’ from the political right, and while I called out Trump for not denouncing white supremacy loudly enough in the debate last night, in retrospect, with the help of transcripts and replay, that moment in the debate may have been Trump’s best moment.

When Chris Wallace asked Trump if he denounced white supremacy, Trump said, “Sure I do.” Biden then interjected, “How about the Proud Boys,” and Trump shot back that he is against violence, but that the violence is coming from the left.

Really the violence is coming from both sides. Yes – the autonomous zones, the rioting and looting, the arson – that’s all coming from the left. But there are right wing groups, like the Proud Boys, that are going out in force, looking to provoke a fight. Trump denounced that – he denounced both white supremacy and political violence.

But Trump did not denounce Western chauvinism, and you know what? We are a Western nation. We are THE Western nation. We are the center and the leader of the Western World.

Trump was right not to denounce that.

Do you know where our country is weak today? We are blind toward what constitutes ‘too far’ from the left. We allow groups on the left to act in open insurrection against our country. We allow groups on the left to openly promote racism. We allow the left to redefine words so that they can justify abhorrent beliefs and abhorrent behaviors.

When you burn down a city in order to try to create a communist state, you are going too far. When you denounce white people, other minorities, Jewish people, or whatever, you go too far. When you denounce a Supreme Court nominee for being Catholic, or for adopting two orphans from Haiti, you go too far.

When you denounce our country, you go too far.

Do we have a flawed past? Of course we do. Every nation and every people on Earth have a flawed past. Our past is LESS flawed than are others.

Should we use a flawed past as an excuse for making an even more flawed future? THAT is what the left wants.

And Trump deserves kudos for standing against them.