The president of the United States, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement are all facing a moral crisis brought on by the events in Charlottesville, which were just the most vivid and tragic expression of a broader trend that has emerged in the last two years but especially since Donald Trump took office. For some, the answer has been simple: condemn the rise of the extreme racist right and any attempt to justify it.
But others have responded by trying to explain it away and shift blame toward — you guessed it — liberals.
There are two interrelated strains to this argument, both equally wrong.