Hillary apologized after saying half of Trump
supporters were “a basket of
deplorables.” But she had gone on to say
they were “irredeemable.”
She was right to apologize for generalizing, but more
critically, she should have apologized for the “irredeemable.” That is the deplorable part of her statement
– as President-to-be, as would-be leader of all Americans, she should not
pronounce any fellow American irredeemable, i.e., beyond redemption, unworthy
of being forgiven, impossible to be reformed.
Who is she, who is any of us to make such judgement?
Deplorable is an adjective (and
properly not a noun.) It comes from the
French de’plorer, to give up as
hopeless. In current usage, it means deserving strong condemnation; synonyms are dishonorable,
inexcusable, unpardonable, unforgivable.
Note that these synonyms do not refer to persons so much as to
behaviors, to acts, to beliefs. People shouldn’t
be deplorable even when their belief or behavior is.
Hillary went on to list the qualities of this “half of Trump
supporters: . . . racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you
name it." Well, there certainly are
among Trump supporters some who are racists; Trump, himself, is likely sexist;
there are probably homophobes among his evangelical supporters; there certainly
are xenophobes; there are undeniably Islamaphobes and also anti-Semites. But, I ask you, does that make any one of
those a deplorable, irredeemable American?
Ann (Janes-Waller) argues, and you may agree with her, that
some behaviors are so egregious that their perpetrator is rightly a deplorable
person; the murderer or serial rapist for example. I won’t dispute the point, but I am loath to
declare “deplorable” some wretch who in frustration at being ignored or out of
a sense of alienation or because of ignorance harbors anti-social beliefs or
indulges in acting out their anger -- or embraces someone who threatens to burn down the whole system.
There is much to deplore in our society, plenty to go
around. But who is to judge? We can agree that firebombing a political
party headquarters in Florida is deplorable behavior. But
what of firebombing Dresden or Tokyo?
“Oh, come on” you say, “that was wartime.” Well, dropping barrel bombs on apartments in
Aleppo? Hiroshima?
To break trust is deplorable behavior, as with the 53
hundred “everybody’s doing it” bankers fired at Wells Fargo -- while management
looked the other way and are still employed. We reward some whistle blowers and excoriate
others; what of Edward Snowden?
Torturing an animal is a deplorable act; but what of Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo?
Assassination is deplorable, but what of assassination by
drone, a practice uniquely of the United States, one in which Hillary
participated?
Trump says we should kill the families of terrorists:
deplorable, not to mention a Geneva Convention war crime. But what of burning whole villages where Viet
Cong guerrillas came from? Or Israeli
destruction of homes of Palestinian “freedom fighters” in Gaza and the occupied
West Bank?
Let’s be cautious about judging what or who is “deplorable.”
Objectifying women is to some deplorable, but do not we
objectify young black men hanging out on the corner, or Muslims, or
Evangelicals or Lesbians or Libertarians or housekeepers or waiters -- any
number of other groups? Who among us can
truly say without a pang of doubt that they do not objectify or stereotype any
group, but treat every individual as a unique person? I can’t . , , ,
I gave a speech in 2010 entitled The Coarsening of America.
It’s only gotten worse.
Deplorable beliefs are more openly voiced, deplorable behavior more
tolerated than ever in memory. And the
acrimony of this election campaign only spurs it on. And it will linger.
The truly important “deplorable” -- to use it as a noun -- is our growing in-civility, our increasing
polarization and fragmentation of community.
People assure me the pendulum will swing back, that America is resilient
and will recover. But that assumes we all
share respect for and trust in American values.
That likely is not the case anymore.
As we have become a more heterogeneous society – 2020 will be a far
different America than that of 1950 – empathy has weakened and trust in the
American promise has been strained – to the break point among some Trump and
Sanders supporters. If 40% of voters
vote for Trump, are we to treat half of them, 20% of the electorate, as unforgiveable? Beyond redemption?
Our next President must attend to redemption first -- America First, to borrow Trump’s slogan,
but I apply it to the President’s priorities.
The Syrian swamp can and must wait; Putin and China can wait. The first job of the new administration must
be to propose programs that rebuild trust among the disenfranchised, to be seen
listening to the disaffected, to promote belief in the American system with
deeds. And she or he has only four years
in which to make healing progress, for if not redeemed, those “deplorables”
will certainly embrace the next demagogue – from the left or right – who preys
upon fears and resentments, who promises to “drain the swamp” and proclaims
“only I can fix it.” And the next
demagogues will be more radical and more dangerous.
All of us need to push that pendulum back, to embrace and
tolerate our fellow Americans, to eschew coarse language and behavior, to
listen to each other, to nourish our empathy, and to encourage each other to
not be judgmental but to reach out and heal the wounds we have been inflicting
on each other.
Only we – only we -- can heal ourselves and rebuild the
communal America of E Pluribus Unum.[1]
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