As many as two dozen racists

Aw yeah – white nationalists threw a rally and nobody showed up.

Almost nobody. It was a pathetic dud.

A year after the race-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Va., a small group of white nationalists marched through downtown Washington on Sunday on their way to a rally in front of the White House.

It was over almost as soon as it began.

The white supremacists were met along their march route and at the rally site by thousands of counterdemonstrators denouncing racism and white supremacy. The white nationalists, who numbered about two dozen, stayed in Lafayette Square, a park just north of the White House, for a short time and left before 6 p.m.

They had been scheduled to hold a two-hour rally in the square beginning at 5:30. A spokesman for the National Park Service confirmed that the white nationalists had ended their event by that time.

Let me guess – out of sheer scorching sweat-inducing embarrassment. It’s pretty damn hard to hold a two hour rally in Lafayette Square with 24 people. You look stupid. You can hang out with your 23 friends for two hours, sure, but you can’t hold a rally, because then you look like a damn fool. They looked like damn fools! Best possible outcome.

Before they made their exit, the white nationalists were separated from the counterprotesters by metal fences and dozens of law enforcement officers guarding against any outbreaks of violence.

But it turned out there was no danger of that because the racists were so damn pathetic.

After marching from a neighborhood just west of the White House, the handful of supremacists settled in a pocket of Lafayette Square, tucked underneath trees. Many of them carried American flags, and several wore President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign hats.

The group’s organizer, Jason Kessler, stood on a platform with a microphone, addressing attendees who arrived before the event was scheduled to begin. He blamed a harsh law enforcement response after last year’s Charlottesville rally for his group’s meager showing.

What, are the big bad tough guys scared of a few cops? Aren’t the cops their friends?

Could it be that his group just turns out to be tragically teeny-tiny itty-bitty small small SMALL?

On Saturday, President Trump issued a general call for unity, denouncing “all types of racism,” but not specifically condemning white supremacism.

On both sides, on both sides.

White supremacists marched toward Lafayette Square on Sunday in Washington.

CreditAl Drago for The New York Times

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