Commentary: If Congressman Steve Pearce is not a white supremacist, then he must publicly distance himself from the president. It’s time for him to put country before political party.
Even by the pathetically low bar we have come to judge Donald Trump, his response to the violence in Charlottesville was beyond the pale. The President of the United States referred to many of the Unite the Right rally participants as “fine people” who were simply defending their “beautiful statues and monuments,” most of which were built during the Jim Crow era to celebrate those who fought to preserve slavery. Apparently, marching through the night with torches, chanting NAZI slogans such as “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us” is not enough to earn Trump’s criticism. Regardless of whether the marchers were official members of a neo-NAZI group or the KKK, their very participation was a vote of support for white supremacy, which is a violent ideology in and of itself. None of them should be given the benefit of the doubt about their decency. The president’s response was so awful that former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke himself praised Trump for his “honesty and courage.”
If Pearce wants to govern New Mexico—a state whose pledge celebrates “perfect friendship among united cultures”—then he must show us that he will stand up to bigotry with more than just boilerplate statements. Signing onto a Congressional resolution to censure the president and his white supremacist aides would be a good start.