Hillary Clinton never stopped being pilloried for her “basket of deplorables” speech in 2016. However, the fact is that Trump and plenty of his supporters have said and done things which are deplorable. The really scandalous part was her casual remark that some Americans were “irredeemable”. But democracy is based on the notion that no one is irredeemable, that we should never give up on fellow citizens, hard as it may be. Those who have engaged in anti-democratic actions must have the chance to convince others that they have changed their ways.
Democracy is the system by which we can throw the bastards out. And that’s all it is. Forgiveness, redemption, they’re moral, or religious, concepts, not democracy.
If we can throw the bastards out without a bloody revolution then we’re in some form of democratic entity. If we can’t we’re not……
If democracy is based on the notion that no one is irredeemable it must be impossible to have a death penalty in a democratic state?
“But democracy is based on the notion that no one is irredeemable, that we should never give up on fellow citizens”
Of course some people are irredeemable, and the beauty of democracy is that it allows us to show how irredeemable they are by voting them down.
I can only agree with you Tim.
I understand it was Winnie who said, ‘Democracy is obviously the worst of all possible forms of government, except for all the others.’
“Democracy” is used as a good word in the way that “racist” is used as a bad word and hence is equally meaningless.
People can try and torture what happened, but the simple fact is that average people don’t like Hilary Clinton. They’ve never liked Hilary Clinton. Right from the start she was considered a liability to Bill’s campaign. When she won political office it was in the sort of places where a Dalek could stand as the democratic candidate and win.
There’s something to politics about being “folksy”. Do you have a narrative that people connect with. Do you have charm. I dunno. I don’t have it. And it’s why Dominic Cummings works in the back room. We give off that whiff of being the sort of people who might start a nuclear war, like George W Bush or Barack Obama don’t. And it’s why Corbyn was totally fucked when those Black September photos came out. You can talk about whether he was just there, or laying a wreath or not. The whiff of crazy was out there in the wild. Better to be safe with Boris.
If you are wedded to one side, it’s deplorable that there are folks on the other. And when there are more of them it’s a bleedin’ outrage.
If you are a journalist and you knowingly suppress a story because it is politically inconvenient to your narrative,, that is anti-democratic because the folks need to know everything in order to vote (in theory. I know the rest of you do not in fact know everything.)
AND if you repeat a ‘take’ from some journolist-style distribution outfit, you aren’t even a journalist, just useless.
Politics is simply one group trying to impose their will upon other groups. Democracy is structure to permit both the attempt and the resistance with as little violence as possible. Or, to throw the bastards out without having to kill them.
Orwell yet again: “Journalism is publishing something that someone doesn’t want published; everything else is Public Relations.”
“ Hillary Clinton never stopped being pilloried for her “basket of deplorables” speech in 2016. ”
Despite the heartfelt, humble and unconditional apology. Oh wait, according to Google that never happened.
If Trump supporters are deplorable, then what do you call all of the murder, hospitalizations, 24-hour prison sentences, child sex trafficking, arson and vandalism caused by Hillary supporters?
What the author of that bit fails to note is
1. Trump has been continually attack for his comments.
2. He’s been continually attack *for things he didn’t say*.
3. You don’t sit back and wait for someone to show they’ve changed their views – they are obligated to show you they’ve changed and in what way.
Clinton has provided no evidence of a change in position. If she does *then* we will consider how to proceed from that point.
Hasbeen Hellbitch: does she hope to be the next Democrat contender? Maybes.
Exactly. The whole problem with the 2016 Election Polling was that Democrats (mostly men, I suspect) were unwilling or unable to tell pollsters “Look, I’ve been a Democrat all my life, but Hillary Clinton is a cunt and I’d rather stay home then vote for the bitch”.
So they lied about voting for Hillary and stayed home, or voted for some 3rd Party schmuck or even…God forbid, voted for The Donald.
Thus, Donald Trump beats all polls simply by virtue of not being Hillary Clinton.
Then again, Electoral theft aside, the 2020 Election was probably the other way around with Pedo Joe Biden getting some percentage of whatever legitimates he did get by virtue of not being Donald Trump.
None of which is a standing ovation for an electoral system that lets crooks like the Clinton Crime Family, dodgy bewigged demagogues or demented pedophiles get near the Whitehouse.
It makes George W. Bush look like a paragon of virtue (which he ain’t).
Joe Biden getting some percentage of whatever legitimates he did get by virtue of not being Donald Trump.
nor Hillary