Republicans have courted racists for years. Why are they cringing now? [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

By Leonard Pitts, Jr.


It is important to look beyond the riot.

Yes, last week’s violent demonstration by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, culminating in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, made for a carnival of obscenity as sickening as it was riveting. But the thing is, it did not spring from nowhere.

And while your first instinct — unlike the moral imbecile in the White House — is condemnation, that’s the easy part. What you have to remember is that this is said to have been the largest public gathering of white supremacists in many years. There is, it seems, an unmistakable new energy on the extreme right.

So you might want to ask yourself: Why?

It’s easy to blame the aforementioned moral imbecile, but truth is, he didn’t create this energy. It created him.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article168097357.html