Clinton is right about 'deplorables': Christian Schneider

When Hillary Clinton declared half of Donald Trump's supporters to be a "basket of deplorables," it did more than provide my fantasy football team with a sensational name. It also exposed Trump supporters — many of whom Clinton described accurately — as having glass chins, dropping to the canvas as soon as Clinton grazed them with a right-cross.

Within 48 hours, Trump released a television ad decrying Clinton's provocation. "You know what's deplorable?" the spot's voiceover asks.  "Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hard-working people like you."

Trump's histrionic, soccer-style flop continued Monday, when he told the National Guard Association conference in Baltimore that Clinton "divides people into baskets, as if they were not human beings."

"You can’t lead this nation if you have such a low opinion for its citizens," Trump told the crowd, adding that Clinton's comment was  "perhaps the most explicit attack on the American voter ever spoken by a presidential nominee."

Had Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush been the nominee making these charges, perhaps they wouldn't be so risible. The animating principle of Trump's campaign has been his deployment of insults, cheap shots and distaste. To act as if he is some paragon of campaign etiquette now tests credulity more than a rom-com in which Katherine Heigl can't find a date. It is utterly preposterous.

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Clinton quickly backed off of her comment, recognizing that "half" was a bit of hyperbolic license. (In a statement, she apologized for being "grossly generalistic.") But while some may argue with the breadth of Clinton's comment, its veracity is hard to challenge. There is a virulent strain of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and antisemitism that runs through Trump's alt-right supporters. The slice of the pie Clinton is describing is smaller than she makes it out to be, but it still contains a dead mouse, making the rest of the pie inedible.

It is nonetheless wildly entertaining to see Clinton take such heavy fire from a comment that wouldn't rank among the top five intemperate things Donald Trump says on any given day. Granted, their styles are different — Trump tends to insult individuals, while Clinton slammed actual voters.  (While Trump believes Mexican immigrants are murderers and rapists and Muslim immigrants are terrorist cells-in-waiting, he likely doesn't consider them voters.)

But this also has unearthed a stunning hypocrisy among Trump supporters, who value tough talk and cheap shots, but can't seem to handle the heat themselves.  The same people who revere Donald Trump for being "un-P.C.," immediately run to their safe spaces when Hillary Clinton lobs a grenade their way. The people who protest the loudest against Trump having to apologize for slandering a federal judge of Mexican descent seemingly won't rest until they get a tearful apology themselves.

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Further, in Clinton's "basket of deplorables" burn, she fully considered the possibility that half of Trump's supporters weren't bigots.  She acknowledged that a good number of them simply may be people fed up with government and who wanted change. If you are one of those people, it seems like you have no complaint with what she said — but if you happily associate with the first group, you might want to reconsider whether the Republican Party is the right place for you.

If one is willing to grant Clinton a bit of comedic license ("basket of deplorables" really is a funny line), her change in tone might actually help her in the long run. The two candidates are polar opposites; Trump can't build a wall between his brain and mouth, while Clinton is painfully lawyerly and cautious. This was a rare moment where it appears she said something she actually thought, not something that had been run through the Public Opinion-o-Tron 3000 before being fed into her mainframe.

Of course, moving forward, discussion of the campaign mainly will focus on whatever odious statement Trump makes on any given day. But if that discussion includes a debate over just how many of Trump's backers are the worst people in America, that seems to be a conversation Hillary Clinton should be eager to have.

Christian Schneider is a columnist and blogger for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this piece first appeared. Follow him on Twitter: @Schneider_CM

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