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President Trump first asked reporters to define the "alt-right," before saying members of the "alt-left" were also to blame for violence in Charlottesville, while taking questions from reporters on Aug. 15 at Trump Tower in New York. (The Washington Post)

President Trump has dropped all pretense and proudly raised the banner of white racial grievance. The time has come for Republicans in Congress to decide whether this is what they signed up for.

Business leaders decided Wednesday that theyd had enough, quitting two presidential advisory councils before Trump quickly dissolved the panels. Military leaders made their call as well, issuing statements in the wake of Charlottesville making clear that they embrace diversity and reject bigotry.

With only a few exceptions, however, GOP political leaders have been too timid to denounce the president and the reprehensible game of racial politics hes playing. I think the corporate chief executives who bailed are making the right bet: History will remember who spoke out, who was complicit and who stood idly by.

On Twitter (where else?), Trump poured salt in the nations wounds Thursday by coming out firmly against the removal of public monuments to the Confederacy the issue that brought white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan to Charlottesville and led to the death of Heather Heyer.

Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments, he wrote. You cant change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson whos next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!

President Donald Trumps reluctance to condemn bigotry suggests he does not want to heal the wounds of racism and white supremacy. Fred Hiatt, head of The Washington Post editorial board, says Americans still have reason to hope. (Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Some slippery-slope arguments are valid, but the one Trump makes is absurd. He cant possibly be so dense that he doesnt see a clear distinction between the men who founded this nation and those who tried to rip it apart.

Trump may indeed not know that most of those Confederate monuments were erected not in the years right after the Civil War but around the turn of the 20thcentury, when the Jim Crow system of state-enforced racial oppression was being established. They symbolize not history but the defiance of history; they celebrate not defeat on the battlefield but victory in putting uppity African Americans back in their place.

But even if someone explained all of this to Trump perhaps in a one-page memo with lots of pictures he wouldnt care. For him, the important thing is to tell the white voters who constitute his base that they are being disrespected and dispossessed. Its a cynical and dangerous ploy.

We know this is Trumps game because White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon told us so. In an interview with journalist Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, published Wednesday, Bannon is quoted as saying: The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.

But Trumps base wont identify with Nazis and the KKK. Thats why Trump maintained falsely that among the torch-bearing Charlottesville white supremacists there were also plenty of very fine people. And its why he now seeks to broaden the issue to encompass Confederate monuments nationwide, abandoning his earlier position that the question should be left to local jurisdictions.

Thats probably also why Bannon, in the interview with Kuttner, referred to the white-power clowns as, well, clowns. Hes smart enough to reassure Trump supporters that theyre not like those racists and that all the racial game-playing is on the other side.

Trumps desperation is palpable. His approval ratings have slid perilously close to the danger zone where Republican officeholders no longer fear crossing him.

For titans of the business community, the tipping point came Wednesday. The chief executives of General Electric, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and 3M decided they could no longer serve on Trumps advisory Manufacturing Council or his Strategy & Policy Forum.

Why stick around? Prospects that Trump can actually follow through on a business-friendly agenda, including tax reform, look increasingly dim. And Trumps many sides reaction to Charlottesville wasnt going over at all well with employees, customers or the executives themselves.

Constructive economic and regulatory policies are not enough and will not matter if we do not address the divisions in our country, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon wrote in a message to his employees. It is a leaders role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart.

The chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard also publicly condemned hate groups in the wake of Charlottesville. They, of course, could not mention the commander in chief by name.

But politicians can. And they must.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.

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History will remember the Republicans who stick around - Washington Post