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Why It’s Ridiculous to Call Clinton’s “Basket of Deplorables” Her “47 Percent” Moment

By Daniel Politi


Hillary Clinton greets actress Laverne Cox during the LGBT for Hillary Gala at Cipriani Club on Sept. 9, 2016 in New York City.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton has straight-out called Donald Trump a racist who is “offering a dog whistle” to the most extremist, hateful portions of American society. But now Republicans are acting very shocked that Clinton would say that around half of Trump’s supporters could be classified under the broad heading “basket of deplorables,” meaning racists, sexists, homophobes or xenophobes. In other words, people who would never vote for Clinton.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s use of the word half immediately made Republicans associate it with Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” line from the 2012 campaign that was secretly recorded. Except, you know, this event was covered by the press and her statement—read in context—was actually a call to arms for her supporters not to automatically dismiss someone as irredeemable just because he or she happens to support someone like Trump.

Let’s take a look at the statement, which Cinton made at an LGBT fundraiser for context beyond the soundbite:

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I know there are only 60 days left to make our case—and don’t get complacent, don’t see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think well he’s done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?

The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people—now [have] 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks—they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket—and I know this because I see friends from all over America here—I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas—as well as, you know, New York and California—but that 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. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.
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As is evident from the remarks, what Clinton was saying is that not all Trump supporters are racists, xenophobes or homophobes, a common idea in particularly liberal circles. So “if you know anybody who’s even thinking about voting for Trump, stage an intervention,” Clinton said before adding that getting people to stop supporting the Republican candidate “may be one conversion therapy I endorse.”

[...]

Romney talked down to and dismissed the importance of poor people, while Clinton talked down to and dismissed racists, xenophobes, and homophobes. A slight difference. Plus, Romney was talking about people who may have actually chosen to support him, whereas Clinton was referring to people who in no way would vote for her. So the risk of alienation really isn’t that great to begin with, although of course it could make the most fervent Trump supporters more fervent.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/10/clinton_s_basket_of_deplorables_can_t_be_compared_to_47_percent_quote.html

.. if you believe deploring homophobic, racist, sexist, Islamophobic and xenophobic attitudes is the right thing to do, then it is fine to call those with those attitudes deplorables .. Hillary made it clear her half was a big generalization, and even that aside, i wonder what fraction of Trump's supporters could be placed fairly in any one of those categories .. about half would be more than pretty fair, i reckon .. was it a bad strategic move? .. well, she said it about Trump's supporters, not about the undecideds .. and she made it clear she was not talking about all those just feeling disenfranchised, i mean many of those would already have decided to vote for Hillary and she knows that .. it is highly probable that of the feeling disenfranchised who have decided on Trump could be fairly said to be a feeling disenfranchised deplorable person .. about half would be fair .. i reckon.

I think Daniel Politi of slate covered it well .. and ridiculous rooster sure fits here ..

See also:

Deplorables: By the Numbers.
...yes, at least “half” of Trump supporters are indeed racist, bigoted, xenophobic misogynists, and are therefore indeed worth tossing into the “Deplorable Basket”.
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