I read that Hillary Clinton is the only politician in America bad enough to lose to Donald Trump. Her ‘basket of deplorables’ speech suggests that might be true.

Mainstream media observe people – Trump supporters in particular – are angry. I would say that angry and fed up are somewhat different emotions, or attitudes. Anger suggests a specific grievance. Fed up suggests a combination of resignation and rebellion: “we’re not going to take this anymore,” with a discouraged realization that yes, you will probably continue to screw me for a long time.

Watch Clinton in the CNN video that accompanies the article. Condescension shades into contempt so rapidly. Her tone and words match perfectly. She cannot contain or conceal her dismissive notions during this brief bit of obloquy. Trump reveals his stream of consciousness so carelessly, but we do not expect that from cautious Clinton. At least she makes no pretense about her leadership. She has no intent to lead the whole country: only those who vote for her.

Almost every day these campaigns confirm that Clinton and Trump are the worst candidates the major parties have produced in our lifetimes. Hillary says that people in her basket of deplorables are ‘irredeemable’, ‘not America’. If she were president, and her basket of deplorables were to decide they would like to secede from the country, she would call them ‘traitors’, ‘irredeemable’, and ‘not America’. We may find you deplorable, but we do want your taxes.

Here’s a simple lesson from Hillary’s remarks, spoken to a divided country. It’s okay for leaders to treat citizens with contempt. It’s okay for leaders like Clinton to commit crimes, lie, and display their incompetence, then speak as if their opponents are beneath notice. If citizens object or talk back, put them down again. Hillary suggests that a fifth to a quarter of U. S. voters fall into her basket of people we all ought to hate. She would like to see them run out of the country. What does that tell you about the type of leadership you could expect from her if she won the White House?

It’s not so different from Donald Trump, who wants to run Muslims and Mexicans out of the country. I suppose when you run for the presidency, you start to think about who you want in your village.

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Clinton: Half of Trump supporters are in ‘basket of deplorables’