There's no doubt now that America is looking at the violence incited by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia as the turning point for the Trump administration. Over the first seven months of the Trump presidency, the administration has been brutally attacking the political standard and in the process, Americans have seen politicians adjust to it. After House Republicans declared that they had lost their first fight to replace Obamacare -- otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- earlier this year, under the standards of how Congress operates, that could have been it.
In came President Trump
But President Trump continued to push using his blatant ignorance in all matters of legislation to get House Republicans to submit and those who were more timid under that pressure did. But prior to President Trump, far right-wing extremist elements had already calcified within the House of Representatives to form the Freedom Caucus. And with Charlottesville enters one particular figure, Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), who represents the kind of Republican, America has become used to in this hostile political climate. His response to the violence in Charlottesville was just like that of President Trump, to blame both sides, targeting the left with false equivalence with the Nazi sympathizers.
Contributing to the false equivalency
On the same day that three people were killed in Charlottesville, Rep. Brat went on Fox News where he claimed that President Trump followed Judeo-Christian values and followed the rule of law under the Constitution. Given his recent pardon of Joe Arpaio however, this is debatable. Brat has not said anything about the pardon. But in his interview, he referred to a new term being circulated in conservative circles, the "alt-left", to describe those 700 or so people who were yelling at him during a town hall earlier in the year. He also stated that they only started appearing in public after Trump became President and that no one had ever "seen that" before.
Brat continues to push back against own constituents
Being that his interview was on Fox News, the anchor nodded and agreed to everything that Brat said, never challenging him over his false equivalency. This is because as a conservative media outlet, Fox News has more interest in singling out Trump's opposition in order to distribute blame for what they consider "dissent" against their President. Brat was also on CNN the same day where he brought up the fact again that he had been yelled at by his own constituents. Like many Republican lawmakers who held town halls earlier this year, Brat has defied even his own constituents. Rather than consider their anger as important for his legislation, he has publicly pushed back. Months later with Charlottesville, Dave Brat has simply pushed back again.