GOP resolution condemning Charlottesville riot sounds a lot like Trump's false equivalency

Someone with such basement-level approval ratings is hardly a worthy political role model. Yet the GOP is following in Trump’s ignorant footsteps on the subject of the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Hill reports that the GOP crafted a draft resolution to denounce the violent episode, specifically singling out “white supremacists and neo-Nazis” behind the riot, which led to the death of a one woman and injured nearly two dozen other anti-racism protestors.

If the resolution had stopped there, it might be worthy of admiration. But of course, it did not stop there.

The resolution reportedly “condemns, in equal terms, both the racist groups ‘and counter-protestors engaged in acts of violence,'” the Hill notes — a clear echoing of Trump’s repeated, offensive comparison between neo-Nazis and those who oppose them.

Indeed, the resolution takes pains to make sure the admonishment is aimed at everyone who was present in Charlottesville, as though defending one’s self or others against violent assaults is merely the flip side of the coin from the actual assault.

The document states that the House “strongly condemns racism, intimidation, and violence by all groups — regardless of their political affiliation or political motivation — that engage in such conduct.” It goes on to demand that “all perpetrators of the violence” be held accountable for their actions.

And Democratic lawmakers are not here for it.

As one Democratic aide put it, “This resolution is a nonstarter for Democrats.”

“It equates neo-Nazis and white supremacists with counterprotestors, and reeks of the same moral equivalence as Trump’s statements,” the aide continued.

“Nazis are bad people” should really not be so difficult to say, without drowning it in equivocating language clearly designed not to ruffle the racist feathers of those carrying torches, Confederate flags, and swastikas through Charlottesville.

But Republicans — in repugnant imitation of their president — couldn’t bring themselves to do it.