One of the anti-Hillary protesters in a picture I saw recently was holding up a sign that read, “Deplorable lives matter”. Many see this—correctly—as yet another bumper-sticker style slogan or hashtag. However, it made me reflect a bit about what it means to be President of the United States.
In fact, to a president, deplorable lives must matter. They are American lives, and their lives are affected, as all of ours are, by the actions and inactions of the President and the American government. The basis of the Trump phenomenon is that the deplorable ones and also the non-deplorable Trump supporters in Hillary’s second basket, feel left out and isolated. Not well-imbued with introspective ability, it is difficult for them to understand how much they have and how much they can take for granted as Americans, often white and male. Since they can’t really see that, they focus on the annoyances of their lives and compare themselves to the denizens of an almost fictional alternative reality portrayed in the media, such as the Trumps, the Kardashians, and so on. The product of those annoyances and of that comparison has made them very angry, both the deplorable ones who already were angry about how the world inflames their prejudices, and also the non-deplorable ones, who haven’t done much if anything wrong.
Now I believe that Hillary’s purpose in making that contrast—deplorable, non-deplorable—was to attempt to speak to the latter group, because she correctly believes that the presidential agenda that she has put together addresses many of the annoyances that this group faces. She undoubtedly believes that she can both give them the attention they seek and can ameliorate their lives substantially. She believes that if she can convey that message, then some of them might actually vote for her. On the other hand, she considers the deplorable ones a lost cause, and was deploring their bigotry and misogyny as a way to attract the attention of the non-deplorable ones.
Be that as it may, a president must treat people who are nasty, bigoted scumbags with due respect and justice, as long as they stay within the law. This is something that is never discussed very much during a political campaign, because most voters deplore the deplorable. Talking about how to help “those people” have a more comfortable and successful—even if still deplorable—life is mostly a distraction. Yet, it is part of the presidential package.
Provoking this kind of liberality-tainted reflection probably wasn’t the purpose of the Trump guy with the sign, but, well, it did.