The events of Charlottesville were still fresh, but we knew enough to understand that neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates were raising a stink. While Antifa was being Antifa, for once we hated the people they were fighting just as much. It was a surreal situation, and some of us wished something would happen to smack both sides down.

Unfortunately, the ugliness got worse.

Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both Cuban-Americans who are not on the list of favorites for any racists, issued statements condemning the hate.

Meanwhile, President Trump offered different thoughts, arguing there was bigotry on both sides.

The left went nuts. After all, how dare the president not explicitly call out the obviously racist crowds in Charlottesville?

Frankly, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had.

Sorry to be cynical, but most of all Rubio and Ted Cruz to me seem mostly to be doing a tremendous job of posturing for 2020. — Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) August 13, 2017

Lipton is a reporter for the New York Times.

What we see here is precisely why the right views the mainstream media in general, and the New York Times in particular, as the enemy. Both Cruz and Rubio have reason to refuse to find common cause with racists due to their own ethnicity, but Lipton refuses to see that and instead ascribes base, selfish motives to their statements.

Yet, if they hadn’t condemned the racists, they’d be getting the same treatment Trump is getting.

It’s a classic case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” There is literally nothing these two could have done that wouldn’t have been blasted by leftists in some way, shape, or form.

Lipton may have made his statement thinking it a non-issue, but Twitter blew up. Scrolling through dozens and dozens of responses to him, I’ve personally only seen two that support Lipton. The rest, including several from liberals, take issue with Lipton’s alleged cynicism. After all, shouldn’t we be encouraging people to speak out against Nazis?

Unfortunately, the damage is done. Lipton has made the case for how the leftist media views the right better than I ever could. By his own words, he makes it clear that even condemning Nazis is something that a conservative will be criticized for. Absolutely nothing will ever be good enough until and unless they throw off the cloak of conservatism and fully embrace progressivism.

For crying out loud, isn’t condemning Nazis and other racist scum something we should all be united on?