On Friday, Hillary Clinton said that she put Donald Trump’s supporters into two “baskets” and that half of them were in what she called “the basket of deplorables,” including, as she put it, “the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it.”
Clinton’s remark criticizing half of Trump’s voters was immediately likened to Mitt Romney’s infamous 47 percent comment, but it goes much deeper than Romney’s gaffe being caught on tape saying a significant percentage of Americans would never vote Republican because they were on the dole.
This was not merely, as her campaign later tried to explain, a criticism of the #AltRight, it was a dog whistle to the Leftwing elite that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are not admissible to polite society and are to be shunned as holding illegitimate views that are unworthy of discussion.
What Clinton was really saying is that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are evil.
As John Cassidy put it in The New Yorker, “In my experience, the culture/racism theory is particularly popular among well-heeled, metropolitan liberals—the sort of people who attended a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton on Friday night, at Cipriani on Wall Street, where Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright performed.”
So, if you think for example that our borders should be effectively enforced, you can be called a racist and shunned.
If you think there are legitimate differences between men and women that should be recognized in law, you are a sexist and can be shunned.
If you believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, then you are homophobic and your views are unworthy of airing in the public square.
If you think immigration to America should be limited to only those who adhere to constitutional government and will contribute to America’s cultural and economic advancement, then you are a xenophobe and your views can be dismissed.
And most assuredly, if you wisely recognize that Islam is incompatible with constitutional government and is an existential threat to American society and cultural ideals then you are an Islamophobe and unworthy of having your views considered.
Naturally, after making her point, a non-apology apology was issued, only to be immediately contradicted by her campaign traveling spokesman Kevin Cirilli. “Clinton campaign standing by Clinton’s 50% ‘basket of deplorables’ remark,” he said in a tweet exchange with campaign spokesman Nick Merrill.
And this is not the first time Hillary Clinton has blown that dog whistle.
According to Politico’s Gabriel Debenedetti, Clinton has been using that line behind closed doors for weeks, it was only when she finally used those words in public that the establishment media was forced to report them.
Recent polls have shown a narrow race, with some even showing Trump ahead outside the margin of error.
But, as Cassidy pointed out, there was more to the Clinton statement than trying to right the ship by blowing a dog whistle to base Democratic voters:
Instead of seeking to shift attention to other subjects, like Clinton’s policy initiatives, her campaign appears keen to keep the focus on Trump’s links to extremist and conspiratorial groups, even if that also helps keep the “basket of deplorables” story in the news. “This is what his campaign has always been about,” John Podesta, the chairman of the campaign, said in a statement on Saturday evening. “And this is a fight we’re eager to have. As Hillary said today, we won’t back down.”
In presidential politics and in marketing, the general rule is that you criticize your competition, not the consumers who buy the competing product. As the New Yorker’s Cassidy observed, Clinton’s violation of this convention allowed Trump to assume the role of a uniting influence. “While Hillary said horrible things about my supporters, and while many of her supporters will never vote for me, I still respect them all!” he said in a tweet on Saturday.
Being recognized as a “uniter” by no less a liberal outlet than The New Yorker might be a good thing. However, the real advantage Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark gave to Donald Trump was to drive more voters to his cause by revealing her own elitist contempt for the millions of Americans who legitimately recognize that American exceptionalism, American culture and their own economic futures are at risk because of what Trump has called a politician-made disaster of which she is one of the chief architects.
George Rasley is editor of ConservativeHQ, a member of American MENSA and a veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2008. He served as lead advance representative for Governor Sarah Palin in 2008 and has served as a staff member, consultant or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative Republican political figures, including President Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. He served in policy and communications positions on the House and Senate staff, and during the George H.W. Bush administration he served on the White House staff of Vice President Dan Quayle.
See an error in this article?
To contact us or to submit an article
