So…Donald Trump finally spoke out against White Supremacists this morning. I read the text of it online and then watched him delivering those words. They were more impressive in print than they were coming out of his mouth because he sure didn't look like he wanted to say those words and they were clearly not his. I'd have been a lot more impressed if he'd said them on Saturday and even more impressed if I thought he meant them.
I wonder how much difference any of this makes. The people who didn't like him before don't like him now. The people who liked him before are probably fine with whatever he says but disappointed that he didn't handle it better. Too many of them didn't know what to say when their Trump-bashing acquaintances said, "So how do you feel about backing a president who's spent more time attacking Rosie O'Donnell than the Hitler Youth Corps?" The ones who side with the so-called Neo-Nazis probably all believe he had to say what he said today for political reasons but he's still on their side.
We forgive our leaders a certain amount of that because while we want them to side with us on everything, we also want them to get things done and to grant us items on our wishlist. It's not a direct analogy but a lot of us were frustrated that Barack Obama wouldn't come out forcefully for Gay Marriage until, finally, he did. We understood that, as the saying goes, "Politics is the art of the Possible," and that leaders sometimes need to sneak up on these issues to be effective for them.
I still doubt Donald Trump is a racist in the classic sense. I don't think he divides the world into White and Non-White. I think he divides it into Pro-Trump and Not-Pro-Trump. The man believes in wealth and winning and he doesn't care how he makes the money and how — or even what — he wins.