Hillary Does Her Best Romney Impression
Four years ago, nobody's blood boiled more than mine when Mitt Romney was caught on hidden camera telling a fund-raiser full of oligarchs that "47% of Americans" were freeloading parasites who he had no interest in appealing to. With that in mind, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't also object to Hillary Clinton's shockingly offensive reference to fully "half" of Donald Trump's voters as a "basket of deplorables", ascribing the most pernicious possible motives to scores of millions of Americans she's never met. There are an endless number of ways Hillary could condemn bigotry and racism, and call out Donald Trump and individual supporters personally for appealing to that bigotry and racism, but to name-call scores of millions of people not voting for you is way over the line to the point of being borderline disqualifying for the constitutional duties of the office of Presidency.
Now to put this in context, Trump makes comments almost daily that are as offensive as Hillary's, but I'm not interested in grading Hillary on a curve here as she is supposed to be the statesman alternative to Trump's vile loose cannon but last night sunk to Trump's level. Just like Romney's comment four years ago, Hillary's comment concedes--to the highest level of public service--a trench-warfare tribalism where those who don't support you are viewed as cartoon villains, and it's absolutely toxic to the prospects of good-faith government. If Hillary becomes President, how can she be seen as a good-faith arbiter of the basic functions of her job if she viewed somewhere close to 25% of the country in the prism of a "deplorable"? It's a word that feels like it's straight out of the archaic Indian caste system, and here we have the frontrunner for President using it refer to more than 30 million Americans she expects to be governing in four months! Do you suppose after hearing this, Hillary's many critics may further question her interest in serving their needs, desires, and aspirations?
Most depressing, the Democratic partisans are circling the wagons to defend her and the comment just as Romney's partisans defended the 47% comment four years ago. "It's true!" each group said then and now. "What does he/she have to apologize for?", reinforcing the instincts of politicians to speak in such monstrously denigrating terms about not only their political opponents, but their political opponents' supporters. Another victory for trench warfare tribalism....at least on the surface. Just yesterday, I speculated that Hillary may be in an electoral danger zone where all Trump has to do to win over enough undecideds and soft Johnson supporters to win is to exceed abysmally low expectations. This unforced error by Hillary could well be the trigger to do just that. Most polls indicate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 55% of Americans intend to vote for someone other than Hillary on November 8th. They may take personal offense to her designation of them as "deplorables" and consolidate around the challenger best positioned to beat her, and that of course is Trump. I suppose it's possible that the opposite could happen and she may have successfully shamed the undecideds to her side so they wouldn't be among those "deplorables", but that seems an unlikely response to such elitist grandstanding.
The ramifications of a Trump Presidency will almost certainly compel me to proceed with my plan to hold my nose and vote for Hillary. But she's making it harder. Not only do I find it repugnant and beneath the dignity of the office she seeks to issue a blanket condemnation of that many millions of Americans in such crude, dehumanizing terms, I think it portends the law of physics will take hold and this action will produce an equal and opposite reaction, rendering the country more polarized, more distrusting, and more ungovernable in the years to come. Hillary deserves every bit of criticism that comes from this comment, but whether she wins or loses, the bulk of the penalty will be imposed on the republic and its people.
Now to put this in context, Trump makes comments almost daily that are as offensive as Hillary's, but I'm not interested in grading Hillary on a curve here as she is supposed to be the statesman alternative to Trump's vile loose cannon but last night sunk to Trump's level. Just like Romney's comment four years ago, Hillary's comment concedes--to the highest level of public service--a trench-warfare tribalism where those who don't support you are viewed as cartoon villains, and it's absolutely toxic to the prospects of good-faith government. If Hillary becomes President, how can she be seen as a good-faith arbiter of the basic functions of her job if she viewed somewhere close to 25% of the country in the prism of a "deplorable"? It's a word that feels like it's straight out of the archaic Indian caste system, and here we have the frontrunner for President using it refer to more than 30 million Americans she expects to be governing in four months! Do you suppose after hearing this, Hillary's many critics may further question her interest in serving their needs, desires, and aspirations?
Most depressing, the Democratic partisans are circling the wagons to defend her and the comment just as Romney's partisans defended the 47% comment four years ago. "It's true!" each group said then and now. "What does he/she have to apologize for?", reinforcing the instincts of politicians to speak in such monstrously denigrating terms about not only their political opponents, but their political opponents' supporters. Another victory for trench warfare tribalism....at least on the surface. Just yesterday, I speculated that Hillary may be in an electoral danger zone where all Trump has to do to win over enough undecideds and soft Johnson supporters to win is to exceed abysmally low expectations. This unforced error by Hillary could well be the trigger to do just that. Most polls indicate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 55% of Americans intend to vote for someone other than Hillary on November 8th. They may take personal offense to her designation of them as "deplorables" and consolidate around the challenger best positioned to beat her, and that of course is Trump. I suppose it's possible that the opposite could happen and she may have successfully shamed the undecideds to her side so they wouldn't be among those "deplorables", but that seems an unlikely response to such elitist grandstanding.
The ramifications of a Trump Presidency will almost certainly compel me to proceed with my plan to hold my nose and vote for Hillary. But she's making it harder. Not only do I find it repugnant and beneath the dignity of the office she seeks to issue a blanket condemnation of that many millions of Americans in such crude, dehumanizing terms, I think it portends the law of physics will take hold and this action will produce an equal and opposite reaction, rendering the country more polarized, more distrusting, and more ungovernable in the years to come. Hillary deserves every bit of criticism that comes from this comment, but whether she wins or loses, the bulk of the penalty will be imposed on the republic and its people.
posted by Mark at 5:50 PM
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