Inspired by the excellent story posted earlier on DKOS, I checked the tweets of all 52 GOP senators for statements on the #Charlottesville white supremacist terror. The second page with legend appears above. The first page is here:
Eight senators (those mentioned in the earlier post, McCain, Gardner, Rubio, Grassley, Portman, Cruz, and Hatch plus Flake) issued the strongest statements, condemning white supremacy. Three senators issued statements condemning strongly violence and racial hatred without mentioning white supremacy. Many more issued statements condemning violence and hatred, similar to those of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Melania Trump, and Donald Trump. Many more have simply not responded.
In my view, and in agreement with the earlier post, we should press those senators who issued weak or no statements to condemn the white supremacy and if not to explain their wording. This is a genuine moral wedge issue which, as Joe Biden said, has only one right answer. We can then push further to ask them to condemn the utterly weak and worthless statement of Trump today.
We must not “throw away our shot” on this. The vile actions of the white supremacists and their tacit or sometimes blatant affiliation with the GOP can no longer be tolerated.