On August 12, 2017, a white supremacist terrorist drove a car into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia. He killed Heather Heyer. Days earlier, white supremacists and neo-Nazis began matching through Charlottesville bearing torches and chanting phrases like "Jews will not replace us," "All white lives matter," "Blood and Soil," and "Fuck you faggots." President Donald Trump insisted multiple times that there were "many fine people on both sides," that there was "blame on both sides," and falsely attributed violence to "many sides."

 

   This both-sides-ism persisted throughout his presidency, across many social and ideological issues. Racial violence, white supremacist terrorism, systemic racism, anti-Semitism, medical science, climate change, women's autonomy, LGBTQ+ equality, and the outcome of a free and fair election are not multi-sided. The political ideology that manufactures an opposing side based on white grievance, misogyny, homophobia, ignorance, and authoritarianism must not be given any oxygen at all, much less the bully pulpit of the President of the United States.