Basket of deplorables

From Postmodern Dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's characterization of Presidential candidate Donald John Trump's supporters in the 2016 race for the U.S. Presidency. In this basket, Ms. Clinton placed anyone she considered to be "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – Islamophobic – you name it" (and how's that for a start on a basket of epithets?) in a speech delivered at "an LGBT campaign fundraising event in New York City on September 9", according to Wikipedia. Although, in retrospect, her comment may appear clumsy - perhaps even childish - to some, some form of this will undoubtedly be picked up and expanded in the 2020 race for the Presidency.

After all, it's fully in keeping with today's Identity Politics, all of which strikes me as a generalized form of comedian Chevy Chace's tagline, "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not." The difference is that pretty much everybody thought his tagline was very witty.