It is tempting to view President Donald Trump’s response to the weekend mob of murderous neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a logical, if morally heinous, extension of Southern Strategy politics.

Liberal journalists, including Judd Legum and Chris Hayes, have adopted an analysis of cynicism, in which Trump has intuited the importance of white supremacists to his political coalition, and will thus go to great lengths to placate them, so the coalition doesn’t splinter.

7. None condemn white supremacists. This isn't an accident, it's a strategy and the strategy is to placate racists https://t.co/0D3ADOJkdn — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 13, 2017

Counterpoint: maybe his political instincts about how crucial they are to his coalition are correct. https://t.co/Hml6Zx0vAC — Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) August 13, 2017

This thinking feels so plausible in part because the Southern Strategy is such a well understood facet of modern Republicanism. It can’t be a stretch to accuse the Republican president of deploying the most elemental of Republican political tactics.

The truth is in fact far worse. Trump and many of his closest advisers aren’t making common cause with vile racists for political advantage. They are the vile racists, and are supporting fellow racists at substantial political risk because they want the racist vision to prevail.

The argument that Trump appeases and placates white supremacists as a form of coalition management is an argument that proves too much. If it were correct, Trump would have something to show for it that other Republicans who flirt with only subtler bigotries do not. Instead, Trump ran behind nearly every Republican senator who was in cycle in 2016. He managed to win the presidency despite garnering fewer votes not only than his opponent, Hillary Clinton, but than any victorious president since 2000, in population-adjusted terms.