Jill Spriggs: We are now living in the environment of Golding's Lord of the Flies. Why was HRC's comment about "deplorables" so controversial? They are just that!


Me: Because she gave away her elitism. Baskets is short for basketcases. Something intuitive held back the complete word. Her words were those of an privileged woman who believes if someone doesn't succeed it's their fault; these miners and others should move and get another job -- she was for destroying welfare for women in the 1990s and she and her husband did. Anyway it was a matter of how to interpret the word "basket." You're right to say it's odd if you don't pick up she means basketcases. I'm voting for her but under no illusion about her. These are basketcases of deplorables. I remember distinctly her scorn in the 1990s again for people who might find her scheme for quangoes for health care hard to do. She was grilled (endless, isn't it) on how the ordinary person would cope with joining a quango to get health care, she snorted (Well if they can't do that kind of negotiation, they must be feeble). Beyond misogyny it's why she's not liked. Keillor right to say she's the boss-lady in church.

Jill: :The comments are elitist, sure, but nothing like how they have been portrayed.

"I know there are only 60 days left to make our case — and don't get complacent, don't see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think well he's done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause]. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — 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. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.
"But the other basket, the other basket, and I know because I see friends from all over America here. I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas, as well as you know New York and California. But that other basket of people who are people 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 doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."

Me: Yes I agree that's why she's guarded and admit that that I never head the whole speech. That does help. So it was pulled out of context.. But I admit when I first heard the phrase which was made too much of, I thought to myself, am I then a basketcase because I never got higher than adjunct. I felt how she would see my life as a failure that is my fault I should have moved on -- like the miners. She would have moved on. I do agree that had a man said that -- but would a man have -- it would not make the front page and it is NOTHING NOTHING to what Trump says daily. He's worse than an elitist: he's a crook, a demagague, will try to set up a kind of dictatorship, a bigot, racist, violence and cruel to women probably... we have plenty of evidence for this latter reality of the man.

Jill: You see, your own perception of the comment was tinted by your own personal experience. Basket case had nothing to do with it.


Me: Well each voter responds from their experience and when we vote and pull that lever, we vote our gut response. The word basketcase was central and hurt.. I loathed her book, loathed the way she used to behave on TV when she was first lady. I acknowledge I vote my gut. I would have been so happy to vote for Sanders. I am voting for Clinton out of intense loathing for and fear of Trump.



Edited at 2016-09-18 04:57 pm (UTC)

I remember Sanders saying in one of his last speeches as a candidate the election is about homeless women with children, and citing a tiny income for such a woman. Had he been running maybe it would have been. I felt good about Obama in 2012 and eager to vote for him. About her I feel that she's a woman, but when I tried to get a button with just her picture I couldn't. Only buttons with her and Kaine right behind her. To me this election is continually grating in feeling. I don't know what it's about but the feeling is bad.

Edited at 2016-09-18 04:58 pm (UTC)