The First amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
The Unite to Right Friday night march was not about freedom of speech. It was about taking advantage of the First Amendment to spread hate. It wasn't even about the Robert E. Lee statue. Where were any signs saying "Leave the statue alone!"? Where were all the signs with Robert E. Lee as the subject matter if this was about a statue? Instead we saw swastikas and the Confederate flag. We heard chants of racial superiority and racial animus. What does "White lives matter!" have to do with Robert E. Lee?
Not was it a peaceful assembly as Trump specifically claimed. When you walk the streets at night by torchlight, chanting "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil", you are broadcasting hate, as well as engendering fear in the greater citizenry. The very opposite of a peaceful assembly. There are no "fine people" to be found on "that side". No "fine people" put themselves in such a setting. They weren't all white nationalists said Trump. Yes, Mr. Trump, they were all white nationalists.
Freedom of speech should not mean you can gather in large numbers and encourage hatred of fellow citizens based on their race or religion. If you do, other citizens have the right, to intervene and offer resistance to any effort to take advantage of the Constitution to spread a message that is designed to rip apart the social fabric, the social contract. The Constitution protects our social fabric. Attempting to rip it asunder by voicing hate and the promise to claim superiority over other citizens based on one's race is something other citizens opposed to such hate have every right to resist.
"Black Lives Matter!" is about insisting on equality. "White lives Matter!" is about insisting on superiority. The former is what the Constitution aims for, the latter is what the Constitution aims to avoid.
History is going to judge what we see happening in America right now. History is going to judge this President, who would dare give some comfort to these people. He defined them in a manner that allows them to believe he is winking at them, that he had to denounce them, but that his denunciation was not to be taken seriously by them. He gave them comfort. By diminishing their role, as the instigators of this rally, by diminishing their responsibility in spreading hatred of non whites and Jews, which aims to tear the social fabric apart, he not only abdicates moral leadership for the American Republic, he acts in a way that defines him as the enemy of the American experiment. He is a destructive force within the body politic, and he is encouraging the growth of a cancer, Neo Nazis and white nationalists, in the social fabric.
Donald Trump is not the President of the American people. He is the President of his base, which he sees and treats as a cult, and he understands Neo Nazis and white nationalists and KKK members as people whose support he does not wish to lose. He does not want to lose the support of American Nazis. And, in the last analysis, what does that say about the moral fiber of this man, and how do we continue to permit him to hold the office of the Presidency, and live with ourselves at the same time?