Hillary Said Trump Supporters Belong In 'Basket Of Deplorables' Because YOLO
On Friday night, Hillary Clinton spoke to an audience of donors and was exceptionally blunt about how she feels about certain Trump supporters.
The Democratic presidential nominee said,
To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? 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.
Clinton described these individuals as "irredeemable" and "not America."
Speaking on the other half of Trump supporters, Clinton stated,
That other basket of people are people who feel that government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures. They are just desperate for change. Doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead end. Those are people who we have to understand and empathize with as well.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was not happy about the former secretary of state's remarks.
The fact of the matter, however, is that Trump has definitely proposed policies that are inherently xenophobic and Islamophobic.
These include deporting over 11 million undocumented immigrants, as well as banning Muslim immigration to the US. He's also made a habit of stigmatizing refugees.
Not to mention, he launched his campaign by describing Mexican immigrants as "rapists," "killers" and "drug dealers."
Simply put, while you're not necessarily a bigot for supporting Donald Trump, it's not unfair to say you've accepted his bigotry.
The real estate mogul also has a long history of making misogynistic remarks. On the topic of women, for example, he once said,
You have to tream 'em like shit.
He also recently suggested Hillary Clinton doesn't have the "presidential look," continuing the long tradition of focusing on a female leader's appearance rather than her qualifications or intellect.
Long story short, while Clinton's remarks were quite blunt and won't do her any favors in terms of winning over certain segments of voters, she arguably has a point.
There have been numerous examples of Trump supporters hurling racist and sexist slurs at the New York billionaire's rallies throughout this election cycle.
Many feel Donald Trump's campaign has reawakened blatantly discriminatory aspects of American society, and there are fears about the long-term impact of this on the country.
The US is no stranger to racism. Many of its founders were slave owners, and the Constitution originally deemed black people as three-fifths of a person.
Segregation was legal in the US less than a century ago, and we still need to address the disproportionate impact the criminal justice system has on minorities, among other issues.
But in 2016, it's definitely disconcerting to see a major US political party nominate an individual who retweets white supremacists and was endorsed by people associated with the KKK.
