Is it possible to hate each other more gently?

I happened to be watching the coverage of the Charlottesville rally and its aftermath on RT, the online Russian TV channel.

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You know how they covered it? They roamed the streets, looking for every confrontation they could find, and just streamed it all – live and un-edited – without any commentary.

The overall effect was to show America as a country where free speech leads to militias roaming the streets with military weapons, masked protesters swinging heavy wooden sticks, ordinary people trying to smother each other with obscenities, and all of them being herded by hundreds of helmeted police dressed in black.

And then, when that car mowed down a group of peaceful protesters, the world got to see one of our own home-grown terrorists.

Our authoritarian competition wants to make freedom look like chaos, and it turns out to be really easy to do.

Then, during the Sunday shows, what was the big debate? It was about what the president should be saying.

I get it – President Trump should be crystal clear about rejecting racism. But are we a bunch of drones who can’t figure out what we should think unless the right words pass the lips – or in this case the thumbs – of the great leader?

Every population is going to have a certain number of racists. But ultimately the way you stop them is by never electing them to public office.

Is this ruckus really helping anything? Is anyone getting anything out of this?

Yes! Russian TV! It gets hours of programming that make America look like just another failed state.

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