Dear Sir:
Re: Brian Mould’s “Deplorables? Not very likely” letter to the editor of Dec. 21, 2016.
It is unfortunate he believes that “deplorables” referred to the general population of “working class people”. Sadly, he is buying into the divisions politicians create in order to divide and conquer the general populace.
This strategy worked well in the US and is already at work in Canada, as evidenced by his letter and that of the behaviour at a recent rally of conservatives in Alberta.
I realize that people in every party, prefer to view the members of “other” parties as uneducated, low educated, on-the-dole and view themselves as the trod upon and maligned, or somehow superior.
It is easier to pit the “working class” against the “elite”, yet in reality, many of Trump’s supporters were “elite” white, upper middle class/upper class university educated males. He also attracted a large swath of women who were white, university educated and middle to upper class. Sadly, I know of many in those social strata who voted for him.
He didn’t only attract the “working class”. Case in point, the area in which I once lived has a high per capita income, less than 2 per cent unemployment and whose employers are largely engaged in “working class” professions, trades people, farmers and the majority have college or university educations.
That state is solidly Republican and, by its usual large margin, voted for their candidate - Trump. These aren’t the down and out, trod upon, hard done by working class people.
His base varies by state, by region, by county, but to apply a blanket statement that Clinton was against the working class by referring to them as “deplorable” is disingenuous.
Clinton was not referring to the “working class” when she used that term, but rather to people who chose to overlook egregious behaviour and rhetoric by a person running for the presidency of the United States.
It referred to those who chanted, “kill her”, who didn’t blink twice when he mocked a disabled reporter, who participated in beating people at his rallies who did not support him, to those who made excuses for his “grab her in the pussy” comments, to those who fell for false news about “PizzaGate”, who believe isolation is the answer to keeping them safe and used racist stereotypes to further that agenda, and on and on ad nauseum.
The term referred to those who somehow found a way to justify their support for a person who was uniquely unqualified and obviously unfit to be the leader of the country. A person whose rhetoric inflamed those filled with the most hate and fear of “fill-in-the-blank” group of people. A person whose checkered history in business and “ethics” were known by most for 30 years or more. A person who is now appointing corrupt and bigoted, dangerous people to his cabinet, who is openly engaging in nepotism and whose companies are directly profiting from his campaign and impending presidency.
The “deplorables” were a group of people who crossed all class lines and supported misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, isolationism, and corruption. They were/are people who define being polite and respectful to others as being forced to be “politically correct”.
It has nothing to do with being working class. I do agree it had everything to do with fear. Fear of a changing world. Fear of a changing national demographic. Fear of fundamentalist extremists. Fear. Fear. Fear. Trump, and the Republican Party, played that fear like masters.
Yes, fear played a role. Desire for change also played a role in the groundswell of support for Bernie Sanders. Yet, he didn’t have to play on fear, hate, racism, misogyny, homophobia or feeding a frenzy of hate and fear.
I would suggest the results of the election showed a desire for change, though some people bought the shiny gold coin, believing it filled with gold, and who will only find lead when the package is opened.
To believe that this was about “working class” people is, at best simplistic, and at worst the first step down the dangerous path taken in the US election.
I believe Canadians are better than that and will, hopefully, not fall for the divisive and hate-filled rhetoric of Trump’s deplorable campaign and impending presidency.
Shelby Raymond
Terrace, B.C.