“Apparently, it’s totally fine to dress up as tiki torch nazis as long as you play for the right team.”
-Andrew Kerr
#freespeechmatters 02.11.2021
We were almost on the verge of another round of congressional hearings, FBI investigations, and the media driving home how how racist the conservative right is in this country. During a “Get Out the Vote” rally on Thursday, Oct. 29, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin was joined by a group of five “white supremacists” who stood alongside his bus declaring their support for the Republican candidate.
It was later revealed that the entire event was staged by the Lincoln Project to prove a point. The Lincoln Project, who has actively campaigned for socialist candidates in the past, admitted that they invited the demonstrators to highlight “the hate unleashed in Charlottesville as well as Glenn Youngkin’s continued failure to denounce Donald Trump’s ‘very fine people on both sides.’ Democrats from my alma mater, George Mason University, dressed up in white shirts and khaki pants and carried tiki torches in an effort to end racism. Their efforts, of course, are as effective as those being taken by the NFL and other major corporations taking advantage of the divided climate by virtue signaling.
Following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina, former President Donald Trump defended members of the right who attended the protest peacefully. He acknowledged that there were bad actors on both sides of the aisle. He also recognized that not everybody at the rally is guilty of racism or encouraging white supremacy. Some people were there to protest the taking down of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and did not engage in any violence of any sort. Members of the right also achieved permits prior to the protest. Counter protesters on the left, however, did not seek out permits before attending the rally with weapons in hand.
To many, the events that unfolded in Charlottesville in 2017 were hard to watch. To illustrate how insensitive and racist members of the right are, the Lincoln Project recruited actors to recreate the event and reveal how insensitive and racist members of the left are. The stunt was organized to not only silence Youngkin, but to place a chilling effect on voting for him. Liberals use accusations of racism very loosely, knowing that they negatively impact people’s livelihoods. This is partly why we can’t have an honest conversation regarding race in this country; too many people leap to conclusions that quickly end the discussion.
The Lincoln Project’s stunt is absolutely protected by the First Amendment. What they did is an example of symbolic speech and a form of protest. However, it makes you wonder how many other events have been staged over the past few years to provoke outrage. Had Twitter’s right not investigated the event further, it may not have ever been revealed that it was completely staged. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s campaign team even used the staged event to tie Youngkin’s supporters to the bad actors at the Unite the Right rally four years prior. We’re being lied to, for political gain, by the same people who swear to protect us. We’re being divided by the same people who campaigned on uniting us. If we don’t wake up soon, things are going to get a lot worse before they can ever get better.
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