General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders: Its a tragic mistake to dismiss anti-establishment voters as deplorable [View all]JHan
(10,173 posts)There are some people who think that everybody who voted for Donald Trump is a racist, a sexist or a homophobe or a xenophobe. I dont believe that. Are those people in his camp? Absolutely. But it would be a tragic mistake to believe that everybody who voted for Donald Trump is a deplorable, Sanders said, referencing Hillary Clintons basket of deplorables comment on the campaign trail. Theyre not. These are people who are disgusted, and they are angry at the establishment. And the Democratic Party has not been clear enough, in my view, about telling those people, whether they are white, whether they are black, Latino, Asian American or whatever, women, gay, whatever, that we are on their side.
And I'm sure, in that tone, if pressed he would have repeated the criticism that the world "Deplorable" should not have been used.
The larger context here is Sanders' criticism that the Democratic Party cannot relate to people, when our platform this year showed that we got it and understood what needed to be done now to combat poverty, climate change etc. Conflating policy with tactical errors and mistakes made by Democrats over the past couple of years is dangerous. I have my suspicions why some are deliberately confusing the two, but it won't help us focus on what we need to do to improve our chances in 2018.