We should all think long and hard about Hillary Clinton's throwaway
line condemning and dismissing the “deplorables” she said make up half
of Donald Trump’s supporters — a comment she only retracted to the
extent of saying “half” was the wrong percentage.
It’s easy to seize on the statement as a gaffe that suggests Clinton
doesn’t understand the job she seeks: No American President can write
off millions of Americans as hopeless or unworthy of respect. It’s also
easy, especially in New York, to agree with Clinton and characterize
many Trump followers as intolerant bigots.
But behind the political gamesmanship of the moment is a big question
that’s been haunting the campaign for months: Exactly how much respect
or deference do the rest of us owe to the extremists flocking to the
Trump campaign, who have already signaled their willingness to tear down
the vital institutions of democracy, including tolerance itself?
The question first occurred to me last November, when video footage
showed an activist named Mercutio Southall being cursed, punched and
beaten at a Trump rally as the candidate shouted “Get him the hell out
of here!” and the next day affirmed the violence, saying “maybe he
should have been roughed up.”
Click here for the full article.
Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report)
No comments:
Post a Comment