By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County Republican Party Chairman Chuck Erickson went to social media to defend President Donald Trump’s comments blaming both white supremacists and counter protesters for violence in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend.
“My point was – and I think this was Donald Trump’s point, but I don’t think it was artfully made, we’ve got to condemn violence on all sides,” Erickson said. “We can’t have vigilante justice running in Charlottesville.”
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with Erickson on WJBC.
On the county GOP’s Facebook page, Erickson said condemning violence on both sides is “common sense” to most people, “but not today’s media, who only want to target the alt-right, and ignore any blame to the alt-left! ”
“If we start to get like that, we have the law of the jungle and not the rule of law and that is not where we need to be,” Erickson said.
The comments have sparked lots of reaction.
“This is wrong,” McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers said in a Facebook response.. “There is nothing about GOP values which should do anything short of condemning hate groups. It should not even be a political issue. No vote is worth your soul. Nazis are bad. The KKK is bad. If you can’t say it unequivocally, then it is a problem.”
Erickson told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin he would hope his remarks wouldn’t hurt the Republican party. He says he can’t be responsible for how his words are interpreted.
The full text of Erickson’s full statement:
“We cannot let any individual or group, take the law into their own hands, and decide that another individual or group, is deserving of violence because that individual or group extremely dislikes the other individual’s or group’s philosophy. When done on the right, it is to be condemned and punished to the full extent of the law. When done on the left, it deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law.
One should never encourage violence against another human being in an occurrence internal to the country, as in Charlottesville, for their evil philosophy, which Nazism or racism is, unless in self-defense. If anyone should act in a way which violates the law, we let law enforcement and due process of law handle the matter. We do not let leave the matter to individuals or groups to act in violence against others, regardless of the reason. We do not approve of brutal and illegal acts against others, no matter what their views, to enforce another’s political principles.
Due process of law is a sacred thing. We cannot be a society where individuals or groups are not discouraged to act in violence or encouraged to act in violence, but encouraged to act through the conversion of hearts and minds to one’s closely held beliefs. Due process of law must be sacred even when we hold the view the other individual’s or group’s political beliefs are evil.
What we have here is Americans exercising their rights to express their beliefs. The issue here is not can we change last weekend, other than condemn it as we must, but how do we act going forward? We suggest that expression seeks to eliminate another person, or engages in violence to advance beliefs, it must be condemned and fought against the way Americans have always overcome these forces, through acts of self-defense when required and justified, through law enforcement or our military, only when necessary, to stop illegal acts or enforce the law, through due process of law, through conversion of hearts and minds in other circumstances.
We condemn violence in all its forms. The McLean County Republican Party condemns anti-Semitism, racism, the KKK and the Nazi Party, and any other group which seeks to undermine or remove our constitutional republic form of government and/or seeks to eliminate a group of human beings.
The McLean County Republican Party also holds the view the President is not a racist, anti-Semite, or member or sympathizer of the KKK or Nazi Party. We believe there are countless acts which the President has engaged in during his lifetime confirm this. We view his statement placed on our Facebook post against violence is better worded as a statement that violence must be stopped on all sides, right or left, condemned by all sides, condemned by all, politicians and the media, and that due process of law and the conversion of hearts and minds must be engaged in by all to eliminate racism, anti-Semitism, the KKK and the Nazi Party. This will not satisfy some, we are aware of that, but nothing we say or do will. We do believe most Americans are not racists or anti-Semites, but we do acknowledge that racism and anti-Semitism still exists, and that the views reflected by those in Charlottesville are not the views of the McLean County Republican Party, the Republican Party in general, and the majority of Americans.”
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
