Basket of Deplorables

It is fair to say that broad generalized statements about people are usually unfair and inaccurate. Whatever propensities one person or a few people have should not, for better or for worse, be attributed to the entire group. For that reason, I think it was unwise of Former Secretary Clinton to use the word “half” when referring to Donald Trump’s followers being in the deplorable basket. If you are a Trump supporter and you are not racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic or xenophobic, please take a breath and know that this is not pointed at you. I realize there are many people who have many good reasons for supporting him.

That said, I was glad to have it out in the open that a great many (not all) of Trump’s supporters are racists, xenophobes and anti-Semites. 

We know this because David Duke who founded the Louisiana based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was for some time the Grand Wizard of the group, has publicly endorsed Donald Trump, because he is running on a platform that shares their values. Duke has also been associated with other white supremacist organizations, such as the White Nationalists and the Alt-Right, who have publicly announced their support for Trump.

We know this because Donald Trump regularly elicits cheers from crowds of his supporters at public and televised events by calling for sanctions against all Muslims, mass deportation of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, regardless of age or circumstance, blocking immigrants from countries where the Muslim religion is predominant.

We know this because of the treatment of non-white protestors at Trump’s televised rallies. We know this because at these rallies violence is condoned against just about anyone not in agreement with Trump’s ideologies.

We know this because Donald Trump has repeatedly made sexist, racist, anti-Muslim remarks at his rallies and received thunderous applause.

We know this because Donald Trump has for 8 years clung to the idea that because President Obama is not “white” he needs to prove again and again that he is an American citizen and many of his followers applaud this.

We know this because – well need I continue? The list is long and the victims of his bigotry and the bigotry of some of those who support him are many and varied.  Donald J. Trump has made racism a building block of his campaign. In spite of his pandering to whatever crowd he is soliciting, he has failed to support African Americans, Mexicans and other Hispanics, LGBT, the poor, the Jews, the Muslim, even the religious right.

Now that he is under new management they are trying to clean him up and gloss over all those ideologies that have endeared him to the David Duke and Alt-Right voters. Keep your eyes open, folks. This election IS about race. This election is about equal rights for everyone, every religion, every sex and sexual orientation, every economic tier and if you don’t look like him, act like him and spend like him, you will not be on his radar after the election.