It’s technically called “scum”, not kidding.
Yeppers.
Sometimes when discussing these people, when folks talk about how this or that person is a “moderate” (they’d consider a McGovern a moderate to right of center these days), I will also bring up cesspools as a metaphor saying that I don’t care how shallow it may be where they are standing, I don’t want to be with them because they’re still standing in crap.