Deplorable means “deserving condemnation.” On Friday night, Hillary Clinton said half of Donald Trump’s supporters can be put “into what I call the basket of deplorables.” She was talking about what anyone who has paid even a modicum of attention to Trump’s campaign has seen and heard: racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia – “you name it,” as Clinton said.
But here’s what she said after describing that first basket: “The other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change.”
History will not record the second part, and that’s too bad because held in the proper context nothing she said requires an apology or clarification.
You can argue over the fractions. Do half of Trump’s supporters harbor prejudices that a reasonable person would find unacceptable? Is it a third or even less? Are half of them good people who feel marginalized by the nation’s political establishment? More than half? Not only is it impossible to say what percentage of Trump’s supporters hold “deplorable” opinions of minorities, women, immigrants, etc., it doesn’t matter. The point is that Trump appeals to that element of society much more than Clinton does. To deny that his candidacy has energized a lot of white men without college degrees who aren’t crazy about people with darker skin is like denying the existence of the sun and the moon, or, for that matter, the reality of climate change and the efficacy of vaccines.
What’s also clear is that many of the same people who embrace Trump for supposedly being a straight-talker sure don’t like it when Clinton, or Colin Kaepernick, or Michael Moore call it like they see it. When Trump says America is broken, his crowd goes wild. When Kaepernick says it, they tell him to “love it or leave it.” That’s deplorable, too.
America needs to be a little more honest with itself. For example, this isn’t a melting pot and never has been; there is black America and white America and Muslim America and uneducated America and wealthy America and poor America, and on and on. The categories may overlap, but they don’t just naturally melt into each other. And you better believe there is a “basket of deplorables” – that is, people who want a political vehicle for their hatred. By and large, Trump is their candidate. That’s a fact, too. They may not make up half of Trump’s supporters, or even an eighth, but they’re there – and he welcomes them.
Every society in the world has its deplorables and always will. Hatred will never be eradicated from the human heart, but there is a human obligation to try to lessen it by degrees – in one’s own heart and the hearts of others. This election season proves America is failing miserably on that account.
The way racial injustice is discussed is deplorable. The way immigration reform is discussed is deplorable. The way economic inequality is discussed is deplorable. America’s most important national conversations are not conversations at all.
We began this editorial by defining the word “deplorable” and now we’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean: irredeemable. There is nobody in any “basket” incapable of deeper understanding, of goodness, given the proper conditions. Unfortunately, the conditions are in part set by those who hold or are seeking political office – and therein lies Trump’s greatest crime.
He didn’t weave the basket, but he’s more than happy to fill it up and reinforce it if it gets him into the White House. Clinton may have made a political mistake in pointing that out, but she wasn’t wrong.