In the 241 years of our nation’s existence, we have wrestled with the specter of prejudice stemming from the country’s sad legacy of slavery. From the debates over the formation of our country, through the antebellum era and the following Civil War, throughout reconstruction and the Jim Crowe period, all the way through the civil rights marches of the 1950s and 1960s, to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, America has faced the dilemma of societal bigotry. The perception of the severity of prejudice usually lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is in reality a subjective notion how hamstrung an individual may be because of the bigotry he or she endures. Yet no one can deny there are erroneous presumptions about the character of human beings of certain ethnicities. Also, there is no doubt these erroneous assumptions have existed to varying degrees at various times in our nation’s history.

While lately, the resurgence of “White Nationalists” supposedly propelled by the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, displayed a renewal of a corrosive sentiment in our society. However the bigot’s champion, the Donald, may not be who those prejudiced fools think he is.

Nevertheless, we had arrived at a time in our nation’s history when one may have concluded our society has evolved far toward equivalency. Yet, an incident has transpired that gives pause to that perhaps premature conclusion. Such is the case with the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia. The origins of this latest uproar are well rooted in the past.

Our founding fathers might have had more courage in the original drafting of the United States Constitution. However, so they could be assured of the southern states ratification of the document in 1788, principal author James Madison knew that a true assurance of equal rights could not be guaranteed. This act of omission regarding the rights of Blacks became a legacy of social bigotry and subjugation, which created fissures in the foundation of our young nation. In the following six decades, our country’s leaders walked a tightrope between the righteousness of abolition and the states’ rights/commercial concerns of slave states. This unresolved moral and constitutional question of the enslaved Blacks festered until its divisiveness led to the Civil War.

Correlatively, when the Civil War ended southerners immortalized their Confederate heroes as marble men in parks throughout the south. In sensibility to modern attitudes, municipal leaders have now been removing these monuments much to the chagrin of hard right activists.

White Nationalists, Ku Klux Klan members and other Alt-Right activists who demonstrated in Charlottesville, yearn for the long lost period of American History when Black people were considered property. Further, they feel threatened that white dominance in our society is being lost to minorities.

This is why these Neanderthals came out in force to support and rally for the Donald during his campaign for president. They thought Donald Trump was of a like mind.

What they failed to see is that Donald Trump does not actually espouse to any ideology at all. Because Trump used coded prejudicial language on the stump, demonized illegal immigrants, and used demeaning classifications when describing black associates, white racists believed Trump was one of them. They were bamboozled. As many voters did, they imbued Trump with characteristics he did not possess. Trump adopted these controversial standpoints of rigid populism merely to curry favor with zealot rightists who would get him elected. If portraying himself as a staunch liberal would have yielded him the presidency he would have assumed that persona. For that matter, if staying a registered Democrat would have increased his chance at ascension he would have never changed his party affiliation. Donald Trump is the epitome of a used car salesman.

In 2011, Trump seized the issue of “Birtherism.” This questioning of President Barak Obama’s nation of birth became the foundation of a future run for president. The Donald found he could appeal to myopic fools who used minorities as universal scapegoats for all their own personal shortcomings.

Previously, for business purposes Trump was a long-term supporter of the Democrat party in New York. Then the ever politically two-faced Trump presented himself as a far right Republican as a vehicle to become president. This spinelessness is proved by Trump’s mercurial stance on virtually everything. He has changed political positions like most people change socks.

This is why the former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke, who was a cultivator of mayhem in Charlottesville, was more than a little miffed when the president wrote a conciliatory statement on twitter. “We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one.” Duke was outraged as he responded to the president, “I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror and remember it was white America who put you in the presidency, not the radical leftists.” In response to Duke’s rebuke, Trump ad-libbed while delivering a prepared statement that he blamed “many sides” for the uproar and tragedy in Charlottesville. Trump’s intention was to attempt to appease the Alt Right with his extemporaneous remark. Later Trump suggested we were losing our sense of history by taking down these southern monuments. He paralleled General Robert E. Lee with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington in preserving the Confederate monuments.

His politically motivated rationalizations angered Rhode Island’s delegation to Washington. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse described Trump’s remarks as “shameful.” Representative James Langevin called Trump’s utterances “reprehensible.” While in regard to the Charlottesville rally itself, Senator Reed said it was a, “disgraceful, hate-filled, unmerciful gathering.” Governor Gina Raimondo alluded to her personal history: “My father fought against Nazism in World War II. The white supremacist rally in Virginia is not America. All Americans should stand in opposition to hate.”

More severely, Providence NAACP President James Vincent called the rally “an act of domestic terrorism.”

More importantly, a Nazi enthusiast named James Fields mowed down a group of counter-protestors killing a young woman and injuring nineteen others. Fourteen others were treated for injuries sustained in brawls. The “Unite the Right” rally embraced White Nationalists, Neo-Nazis, the KKK and Alt-Right activists who earnestly wish to turn back the clock to an era in our nation when heinous bigotry was allowable by law. The counter-protestors rose in opposition with their own liberal agendas, but in facing down the lunacy of Aryan bigotry they held the moral high ground.

Whatever stripe of bigot the United the Right demonstrators were, these pinheads should attune their limited minds to the following facts. The man they perceive as their standard bearer Donald Trump does not care at all about their cause. He merely said anything to get elected.

Secondly, the south will not rise again as a separate and distinct nation. The southern states are part of the modern United States now and forever. Furthermore, we will not permit our fellow citizens of any heritage to be put asunder. We are all Americans and we have learned from our past mistakes.

Lastly, the foundation of prejudice is illogical. To judge a man or woman’s character based upon their continent of origin or their religion defies reason. We are a nation built on religious and genealogical plurality. The fact that we are not homogenous is our strength.

So go back to your holes you ignorant bigots. Your time has well past and it will not be resurrected in the era of Trump!