There’s an old political rule: it’s okay to rip your opponents, but it’s not okay to rip your opponent’s supporters. First of all it makes you look mean, secondly the people you are ripping are the same people you are trying to convince to change their minds and vote for you. Hillary Clinton broke that rule on Friday with her “basket of deplorables” comment. For her it raises a third issue. In her tenure of politics Ms. Clinton has shown herself to have an arrogant additude toward the “regular” American. Her basket comment reinforces that additude.
Guest post by Onan Coca
Sadly, the liberal candidate for President could probably get caught breaking laws, put national security at risk, lie to Congress and the FBI, suffer a health crisis, and still she’d escape the media’s gaze. Oh wait… that is exactly what has happened!
Remember 4 years ago when Mitt Romney claimed that the Democrats were buying 47% of the vote through welfare state goodies? The media practically broke its own back with the conniption fit they experienced while demagoguing Romney and misrepresenting what he was trying to say.
RT if you agree: We need a President who is fighting for all Americans, not one who writes off nearly half the country.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 18, 2012
Or how about when Hillary took it upon herself to argue that Trump disqualified himself from the presidency by choosing to not represent all Americans?
If Donald Trump doesn’t show all Americans the respect they deserve, he doesn’t deserve to be their president. https://t.co/mDBewdAYLU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 7, 2016
So how should everyone respond to Hillary’s recent comments calling “HALF” of Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables” and condemning them as “irredeemable” racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes, Islamaphobes?
“To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call ‘the basket of deplorables.’ Right?” she told donors at the LGBT For Hillary Gala, at which Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright performed. “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 offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”
The Democratic presidential nominee added, “Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable. But they are not America.”
But the bigger question is this: how will the media respond to what is obviously a worse gaffe than the one committed by Mitt Romney 4 years ago? Romney wasn’t attacking the character, morality, and humanity of the American people, Clinton was. If Romney’s mistake was unpardonable, then Clinton’s gaffe should be next level inexcusable. However, if you’re expecting the liberal media to care, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I’ll leave you with these comments from, Rep.[score] Marsha Blackburn[/score] (R-TN), who hit the nail on the head with her perspective on Hillary Clinton’s comments:
“This is what — this is what is in her heart of hearts, this is what she thinks about people that are out there in fly-over country. And that is why these 50 state polls are so important.”