On September 9, while speaking to the LGBT for Hillary fundraiser, Hillary Clinton opened her mouth really wide and shoved her foot so far down her throat it’s a wonder she didn’t choke. Well, that’s how the Trumpublicans framed it. You be the judge.

Part I:
Open Mouth, Insert Foot

“To just be grossly generalistic,” she said, “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.”

The other half of Trump’s supporters, she said, were desperate for change in the face of economic anxiety.

Trumpublicans pounced on this, as one might expect, and as she deserved for spewing out a line that made her such an easy political target. They compared it to similar gaffes in the past two presidential elections.

In 2008, in speaking about working-class Pennsylvanians hit by massive job losses, Barack Obama told a fundraiser audience that “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” 

Obama later said that his comment was “boneheaded.” It was, politically. But it was probably also true. To be fair, it likely wasn’t because of the job losses; some people are just assholes who aren’t intellectually much deeper than guns and religion and hating others.

In 2012, at a private donors’ gathering, Mitt Romney told his audience that “there are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what” and said that they “believe they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.” Republicans don’t believe in socialism, of course, but they don’t exactly scream it from the rooftops. They need to fool as many poor people as they can into voting Republican, after all.

For what it was worth, Clinton apologized for her comments the next day. “Last night I was grossly generalistic, and that’s never a good idea,” she said. “I regret saying ‘half’—that was wrong.”

It was the correct thing to do, politically speaking. Imagine if Trump had said something like that! He wouldn’t have apologized; he’d have doubled down the next day and then repeated whatever inappropriate thing he’d said at every rally and whistle stop across the nation. And his supporters would have loved him even more for it.

Naturally, Trump pounced on Clinton’s apology immediately. Even more naturally, he did so by lying about it.

“Isn’t it disgraceful that Hillary Clinton makes the worst mistake of the political season and instead of owning up to this grotesque attack on American voters, she tries to turn it around with a pathetic rehash of the words and insults used in her failing campaign?” the statement said.

This, despite the fact that she did own up to it. This, despite the fact that the only thing grotesque are the deplorables voting for Trump. This, despite the fact that her campaign is thriving.

“For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans,” the statement continued.

I’m not sure how someone is a bigot for pointing out bigotry, but Trump’s supporters won’t see that. Collectively, they don’t seem to be all that bright, or in possession of basic critical-thinking skills. But did she show hatred? No. I think it’s clear that she disapproves of deplorable behavior like racism and homophobia. Good for her. A presidential candidate has to support the constitutional rights of all her constituents, but that doesn’t mean she has to like them.

Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, also bashed her.

“The truth of the matter is that the men and women who support Donald Trump’s campaign are hard-working Americans, farmers, coal miners, teachers, veterans, members of our law enforcement community, members of every class of this country, who know that we can make America great again," he said. “Let me just say, from the bottom of my heart, Hillary, they are not a basket of anything. They are Americans and they deserve your respect.”

No, they don’t. Respect is earned, and this unwavering mass of hatred and intolerance that will be Trump’s support at the polls has earned no respect. And, by the way, Clinton has supporters just like all the types Pence listed—but they’re not collectively deplorable. They’re the people who aren’t racist and homophobic and so forth. Trump can have his deplorables. I’d prefer Clinton stick with the segment of the population that’s on the plus side of morality.

We know that people aren’t perfect, and even the most battle-tested politicians will open mouth and insert foot from time to time. It’s usually just poor wording. Obama should have not said any of what he said because there was really no way to say it without coming across all wrong. Romney, who admitted that his choice of words was “inelegant,” was actually not entirely wrong, and if he’d known that someone was secretly recording him he might have spoken more carefully. And Trump… well, that guy has new gaffes every day, so there’s not much hope for him.

Hillary Clinton finds the behavior she outlined, which we see from Trump supporters every day, deplorable. Donald Trump and Mike Pence think that deplorable behavior should be celebrated as part of making America great. It doesn’t make America great. It sinks us further into an uncivilized cesspool on the global stage.

Part II:
Who’s Deplorable?

Clinton began by using the word “half.” She explicitly divided all Trump supporters into two camps. Camp #1: Desperate. Camp #2: Basket of deplorables.

But she was right about the deplorables part. Sure, I imagine that there are many Trump supporters who truly see him as the better alternative to Clinton, but I suspect that they’re so rabid against her that she’s nothing short of demonic. If Adolf Hitler were resurrected today and got the Republican nomination (his resurrection would surprise me, but getting the nomination wouldn’t) they’d probably still convince themselves that Hitler would be a better choice.

But I’m willing to dispense with any debate about what percentage of Trump supporters is desperate, because I think Clinton would have been right on target if she’d put 100 percent of Trump supporters in her basket of deplorables. Consider the definitions of the word “deplorable” from Dictionary.com:

Deplorable: 1. causing or being a subject for grief or regret; lamentable. 2. causing or being a subject for censure, reproach, or disapproval; wretched; very bad

The behavior she cited certainly fits both definitions.

This isn’t about arguing red versus blue. As I’ve stated before, I’m not a registered Democrat. I always consider all candidates on all issues, and as a rule vote Democrat because I’m liberal and progressive and rarely do Republicans make the grade for me. I’m also an atheist, and although most politicians are religious, the far-right Republicans are so filled with Christian self-righteousness and engaged in such an arrogant crusade to force-feed their religion down our throats that they generally disgust me.

This election, however, is a different ball game. I don’t think that all Republican voters are always desperate or always deplorable. Most of the time, I suspect that they weigh how the candidates measure up to their positions on the issues, and along the way they consider the character of the candidates. Who are these candidates? Are they good people? Do they exhibit strong moral compasses? Are they the sort of people who should be representing us?

This year, Donald Trump changed all that. Or maybe he didn’t; maybe my musings in the last paragraph were wrong, and the vast majority of Republican voters are just dreadful people.

Trump has been a lightning rod that has attracted the worst in Americans. “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it,” Clinton said, and she was absolutely right. Not just one racist or sexist comment; not just an isolated incident of homophobia, xenophobia, or Islamophobia; no, Trump has been a steady fountain of these things—or, really, a blasting geyser of these things—and much more.

This is not a liberal ranting about how conservatives vote. This is about a human being who is disgusted at the incredible levels of deplorable behavior being exhibited by Donald Trump, by the team that runs his campaign, and by the people supporting him at his rallies. I’m damned sure that if a Democratic candidate was as off-the-rails crazy as this Republican train wreck, we’d have seen a steady exodus of people from that candidate’s campaign, and gazillions of voters running the other way.

But not here. Not with Trump. No, his campaign is energized by it. And the worse he gets, the more people want to help him win. The more deplorable he gets, the more his deplorable supporters love it. And why not? If misery loves company, than deplorability must as well.

David M. Fitzpatrick is a writer living in Maine, USA. His many short stories have appeared in print magazines and anthologies around the world. He writes for a newspaper, writes fiction, edits anthologies, and teaches creative writing. Visit him at www.fitz42.net/writer to learn more.