Posted on 09/11/2016 1:51:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
How badly will this hurt her in the polls?
Theres an unwritten law in American politics that you can attack your opponent but lay off your opponents constituency. The people, after all, are sovereign in our republic, and it is well understood that you cant ridicule or dismiss a sizable segment of the people without attacking the entire American system. Most politicians understand this instinctively, though lapses inevitably occur.
One of the most amazing lapses occurred Friday night when Hillary Clintons attacked what she calculates as half of the Donald Trump constituency. At a LBGT fundraiser in New York, she said they could be put in a basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause] The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobicyou name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.
Of course she also talked about the other basket of human beings who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change. It doesnt really matter where it comes from.
So lets look at these two segments of Trump-supporting U.S. citizens, constituting probably some 40 percent of the electorate at this moment (about the same as Clintons current constituency). But first lets pause for just a moment to observe that visualizing her opponents voters in baskets is incendiary in itself, reflecting the extent to which Clinton looks down on masses of her fellow Americans.
In the first category we have the deplorablesconstituting some 20 percent of the electorate. Thats a lot of bad guys, but certainly enough to get rich people to part with their money at a fundraiser of super-libs who dont want to have to think about people not like themselvesin other words, ordinary people with ordinary lives. These fat cats paid between $1,200 and $250,000 to get into the eventwith Barbra Streisand singing songs with improvised lyrics ridiculing Trumpand it generated a reported $3.1 million for Clintons Victory Fund. Not a bad haul for a nights work.
By portraying this first basket of Americans as deplorable racists, homophobes, xenophobes, Islamophobes, Clinton essentially declared herself above the debate. If these people can be dismissed from American political discourse, she doesnt have to pay any attention to their cares, concerns, fears, hopes, political perceptionsor, for that matter, their lives. Theyre simply deplorable.
But what about that other basket. She does care about them, she avers, explaining, These are people we have to understand and empathize with as well. But look carefully at her words. These people, she says, are essentially dupes. They are so desperate for change that they will even turn to Trump because he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They dont know any better. So, here again, Clinton excuses herself from any political requirement to engage in any serious debate with her Republican opponent, whose constituents are either deplorable or delusional.
Its as if Clinton cant quite grasp what this campaign year is all about. Take some of her deplorable categories.
Racist/xenophobe: Trump has forced into the campaign discourse the idea that borders matter to any sovereign nation, that any country without secure and delineated borders is a country that is losing its definition and hence its identity. Americas political class didnt want to address this issue at this time, and certainly not in Trumps terms of national identity. But Trump proved there was a silent constituency that wanted this matter discussed and debated. By labeling those people as racists, Clinton demonstrates that she just wont allow herself to get drawn into that debate.
Homophobe: Without declaring a position on gay marriage and recognizing that the issue has been largely settled in the American polity, it is still worth noting that this political developmentthe Wests abandonment of centuries of sentiment on the definition of marriage in civic and moral termsis a huge cultural development. You dont have to be what Clinton means by homophobe to lament this change or to harbor lingering feelings that something precious has been lost. But the LBGT community has doubled down with attacks on the religious sensibilities of people who dont buy in and with the silly bathroom and locker room issue regarding transgender people. And Clinton throws around the homophobe aspersion as a means of declaring the debate on these matters off limits.
Islamophobe: For 1,400 years, the West and Islam have been in intermittent clash, and much of it can be attributed to doctrinal differences between the two civilizations. Those doctrinal differences persist and contribute to the Islamist attacks we see today on Westerners by people called terrorists. Many Americans perceive that much of this tension and violence is intrinsic to the two civilizations, but that view is deemed politically incorrect by many liberal intellectuals. If its politically incorrect, it is beyond debate, which is where Clinton wants it.
No wonder Clinton lost her head in attacking a huge segment of her fellow Americans. She doesnt want these matters to be debated, and neither do those rich people who attend her fundraisers. Its all been settled, as far as they are concerned. But Trump has marshalled a cluster of political sentiment demanding debate on such issues. These people wont go away, or yield to elite opinion, or bow to the supercilious establishment types who think they get to set the terms of debate in America.
The debate will go on, despite Clintons insult. In fact, the insult now becomes a significant part of the debate.
I hope this will not be forgotten in view of all attention suddenly on her health. Also, I hope James Comey’s link to the Clinton Foundations will not be forgotten.
She didn't call us "subhumans," and never referred to Donald Trump's campaign as "The Trump Question."
Isn’t half of her constituency deportable?
Unlike the Jews and the Gypsies, we’re heavily armed.
Excellent. He’s called it. The Witch sub the ‘W’ with a ‘B’ doesn’t want to debate anything period. She just wants us to crown her the Queen.
What would happen if Hillary died before the election?
I’ve read there is a time window in which they can substitute someone else but haven’t read what it is - anyone know?
Uncharted waters for sure. Obama would just do any damn thing he pleased, of course. Which would be Biden, IMHO.
I don’t know, but you might want to buy stock in Party City.
They would have to get a crane to lift the house off of her?
Meh. The Dems tried to get folks worked up over “47%”.
I thought they were referring to her use of four-syllabe words. Very bad!
Frankly, she can go to hell in one of her handbaskets.
Lol! Excellent!
Good article, 2nd Div. Thanks.
Is that the rule about never letting them see you collapse into a lifeless heap of clothes and be hoisted face first into your vanbulance?
A good question to ask liberals:
Should students of the future protest a Barack Obama library because he opposed same-sex marriage until he “evolved” - which came, not coincidentally, after he won his second run for the White House and no longer had to face the voters?
Reference: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0816/bernie_g081916.php3#ikyWLzV21BttFesh.99
Seems like an expanded version of Obama’s “clinging to their guns and religion.”
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