March 14, 2018

Why is Hillary doubling down on her old, unfortunate "deplorables" theory?

Quoted here and in many other places where I'm seeing her criticized as clueless about why she lost, but I want to say something else.

First, the quote:
If you look at the map of the United States, there is all that red in the middle where Trump won. I won in the coasts, I win, you know, Illinois, Minnesota, places like that. But what the map doesn’t show you is that I won the places that represent two thirds of America’s gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward, and his whole campaign, “make America great again,” was looking backwards. You know you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs, you don’t want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it.
I don't think she is in any way deluded about why red-state Americans rejected her. They sensed her contempt and lack of concern for their predicament. It wasn't hard. She had contempt during the campaign even when she was under pressure to act like she cared, and it's no surprise that she has it when she's free of that pressure. To express her contempt and lack of empathy now is simply to revel in the freedom of not having to appeal to the people for their votes.

And isn't it refreshing to hear her straightforward pride in having the support of the economically successful people?  She "won the places that represent two thirds of America’s gross domestic product." And she equates having the money with being "optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward." The rich are not just different because they have more money.* They are also better people all the way down.

Are they rich because they're better, or are they better because they're rich? I don't know, but hooray for the well-off, and maybe those poor people are poor for good reason — that's what I hear from Hillary, exulting in India, where I don't know how well that sort of attitude plays.

In a really terribly stratified society, it may help to indulge in a philosophy that says you have what you rightfully deserve, and we don't have to worry too much about the dispossessed, because their own failings have got them where they belong.**

And isn't it lovely to have Hillary Clinton swan over from the United States to bestow such convenient wisdom — convenient for the best people, of course. For the losers, you are even bigger losers if you listen to someone who tells you he's going to solve your problems. That's beneath Hillary Clinton. And she's free to say so even more clearly now.

And here's the video, which conveys a truly queenly imperiousness:



_________________________

* I'm reminded of the mythical exchange between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway: "The rich are different from you and me"/"Yes, they have more money." Hillary seems to be on the F. Scott side of that debate.

** I'm thinking of Social Darwinism and karma.

244 comments:

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Drago said...

I'm going to mark TTR down as "Somewhat Opposed" to a potential Trump/Hillary Unity Ticket.

tcrosse said...

The Democrats knew all of this about Hillary before they nominated H>er. Yet they persisted.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'd favor it if it strengthens their opponents.

Luke Lea said...

She comes off like Ceaușescu's wife.

Drago said...

TTR: "I'd favor it if it strengthens their opponents."

Now you're thinking strategically!

By the way, I wanted to ask you what your thoughts are regarding the accusations against Bibi.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I don't know much about Israeli election laws, other than that while there is notorious corruption (or perception thereof) their laws against/intolerance for it is probably a good deal stronger than ours. I think it's been a while since we even bothered to knock a politician out of there for conflicts of interest... nowadays it seems the more corrupt the better. I don't know anything more about over there than what the media say. So if he goes, that would be a pretty ingrained fixture in Israeli politics to go away, and one that they seem to think is the most stabilizing apparently. I don't think it would provide an opening to their left-wing party/parties, but maybe to some decent centrists formerly of the right, like Livni. Other than that I don't have much of an opinion - they're their own country, but if they can work the geopolitical moves like Netanyahu did then that's the kind of talent that's important and matters to them. Netanyahu got a lot of flack "globally" - but the Israelis figured that they always will anyway, and if he truly consolidated a de facto alliance with the surrounding Sunni Arab states all the way to KSA then that's to their great benefit and something his successor should really try their best to continue.

I think it made sense for Obama to divide the Middle East with an opening to Iran, but Israel's interests are very different than ours in this manner.

William said...

If there were a death pool going, I'd want my money to be on Trump, but these things can be deceiving. FDR outlived Wendell Wilkie....Hillary was such a terrible politician that late nite comedians and SNL would occasionally make fun of her. They did it in a respectful, affectionate way, but it really happened.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

More concisely, I think the most important thing for Israel is to consolidate regional alliances with powerful Sunni states - whether it's netanyahu who continues to do that or someone else. I think there's no point to them or to us to continue deals on a path to sovereignty for the palestinians, even if they can/should withdraw from no more than 2/3rds of the west bank eventually. Chasing that thing as a security/political prize is a pipe dream; better to consolidate a long-term hegemony over what they have. The current situation is stable. Not having to be in Gaza while those attritions wind down is for the best, while at the same time consolidating security cooperation in the west bank. that's the best that can be done. if over time parts of the population that are retained merge with the israelis that's probably the right thing. but minimize any parts that go under a sovereign/semi-sovereign palestinian banner. just take that seductive aggravation off the table and continue to function with as normal an economy and self-interest-pursuing government as possible.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The Trump's are in the mood to fire people.

Michael K said...

It was so long ago that armchair docs here predicted her death any day now.

No, just that she probably had Parkinsons and I still think so. Watch her deterioration.

Bruce Hayden said...

“No, just that she probably had Parkinsons and I still think so. Watch her deterioration.”

I think that her health has to be deteriorating- during her campaign, she had the excuse of the rigors of campaigning for her stumbles. She has had 16 months to rest up, and still would have crashed twice going down a simple staircase there in India.

Lexington Green said...

"You know you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs, you don’t want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are."

Delusional.

The hate that she has for at least half this country, or really, her twisted, sick, and warped stereotype of half of America, is really something to behold.

Thank God she lost.

Sprezzatura said...

Aside from judging HRC's judgements of folk who aren't rich, doesn't she need to be more careful re stats re what she said?

IOW, she's making a point re how rich people vote, but she's only referencing data that describes how entire regions (e.g. the ones that happen to contain the most rich folks) vote. IOOW, what if the majority of rich folks in these HRC areas did vote for DJT (or 3rd party)? Just looking at the vote totals for these regions isn't a basis for making claims re the silver spoon sliver of these voters.


Anywho, aside form that, if she's saying that lots of backward losers voted for DJT, I agree. Of course, she also received the votes of many poor and normal people, maybe even more of them then he did.


Two losers don't make a right.


Your welcome.

wbfjrr2 said...

I wonder about the equation “poor character = unfit to be president “. Thus Trump must be a bad President. Yet the same people idolize Bill Clinton and claim he was a great president, yet his character flaws dwarf Trump’s. And they voted for Hilary in droves despite her being a thoroughly corrupt, venal, and hateful, miserable excuse for a human being.

Churchill had glaring character flaws ( drunk, bully, poor father etc) but likely saved the world by his ability to rally England to hang on long enough for the US to join the war.

Both Bushes were of good character, but mediocre (at best) presidents.

Obama, other than being a serial liar, narcissist and self aggrandizer, was relatively good character yet was easily the worst President in my lifetime (73 years). His one and only talent was getting himself elected to successively more senior political positions, but so completely lacks common sense that it’s hard to think of a single good decision he made as President- was it the trillion dollar shovel ready waste, nearly destroying healthcare for scores of millions, open borders, setting race relations back decades, fostering disrespect for police and the rule of law in general, giving Iraq to Isis, toppling an Egyptian ally, Iran deal, Syria, Libya and within that Benghazi and the lies that followed, alienating Israel, weaponizing the IRS, Fast and Furious gun running to the drug cartels, corrupting the intelligence agencies, picking corrupt hacks for his cabinet, ignoring the constitution when it suited him, weakening our military, supporting sanctuary cities, encouraging illegals to vote— the list is endless. He came close to destroying us. Yet he’s a demigod to half the country.

I’ll take Trump’s flaws any day in exchange for his clear thinking policies that are good for America.

Bruce Hayden said...

"You know you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs, you don’t want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are."

Of course, she is so far into her delusion that she fails to realize, or is experiencing cognitive dissonance as to the reality that those demographics are precisely the ones improving their lot the most with the Trump Economic Boom. Who wouldn’t have benefitted that way if she had won. That is, really, the absurdity, that the constant Dem line is that White working class voters voted their race, and not their economic interests when voting for Trump. Quite the opposite - it was the Black and Hispanic working class that didn’t their economic self-interest, but instead voted their race or ethnicity, when they voted for her.

Howard said...

TTR: Thanks for that summary on Israel.

Howard said...

I like how we can all unite behind our disgust for Hillary

Michael K said...

Somebody check the temperature of hell.

Ritmo and I agree on this thread.

Balfegor said...

I don't think she went into the election feeling contempt for those parts of the country, though. I remember how in the 2008 primaries, those were her core voters. Them and -- at the start -- Black voters, although Obama's supporters successfully racialised the Democratic primaries to win them away. And she was visibly comfortable around them.

I think she went into 2016 thinking she had to win over the extreme Left (who would otherwise opt for Sanders), and struggling with all the ways that under Obama, her party had become more and more extreme, to the point that her husband was turning into a hate object for governing as a moderate during the 90s (gutting welfare, signing NAFTA, signing the defense of marriage act, etc.) At least some of her expression of contempt was, I think, a bit put on, because she thought that was what her barmy party wanted.

But now that she's been rejected, the ressentiment is real.

HT said...

Why is Hillary doubling down on her old, unfortunate "deplorables" theory?


I don't know. So you can collect over 200 comments? The main ones who care about her now are certain conservatives and commenters here. We've moved on. She's done - kaput, finito.

Drago said...

TTR, thanks for your response re: Bibi.

Your takes on Israel and the general topic area of Western Civ I've always found interesting, even though we give each other tremendous (and often ridiculous) grief on other topics.

Drago said...

HT: "The main ones who care about her now are certain conservatives and commenters here. We've moved on."

LOL

Is this the part where we all pretend that the lefty media is constantly fluffing Hillary?

Take it easy HT. There's no reason to beclown yourself right out of the blocks.

Jupiter said...

"It was so long ago that armchair docs here predicted her death any day now."

I'm no armchair doc, but I did wonder before the election whether she could survive until January 20th. I'm now glad that she did, I really enjoyed watching videos of her watching Trump's Inaguration. But it's fine by me if she croaks before the next one.

wildswan said...

Hillary's game isn't over till the fat lady has wings. She's going to try in 2020. And see how she presents her support of the rich as support by the "optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward" part of the country and her lack of concern for the poor as lack of concern for racists and sexists. Apparently, for her there are no poor in California even though one quarter of the nations homeless are there.

(And thanks to the guy who worked out the 48 % of the GDP is in red states. To say nothing of the mines, the ranches, the farms and the fracking.)

tpceltus said...

Michael K, I think you may be right with the general direction of your comments (about Parkinson’s & donors). It’s struck me before that she is both ill and scared. And I was a big fan until Benghazi.

walter said...

MK,
Didn't mean you.

BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if Hil thinks the secret ballot is somehow unfair..but it still exists...no matter what a spouse says to the other.

Darrell said...

Hillary--"Why am I not 50 stairs ahead?"

Jon Ericson said...

This could help...

Apparatus required

Jon Ericson said...

Is there a bubble in the Soros cash-pipeline?
Plumbing issues?
Getting cash out of charitable trusts takes big(ish) bribes and time.
Will Justice be served?

walter said...

ARM's got other topics!

walter said...

Stormy Daniels!!

Jon Ericson said...

CPUSA has many problems.

chickelit said...

Love the commenter unity! Seriously.

Lewis Wetzel said...

walter said...
. . .
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if Hil thinks the secret ballot is somehow unfair..but it still exists...no matter what a spouse says to the other.
3/14/18, 9:20 PM

Yeah, Walter, I've also had the suspicion that Bill voted for Trump.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Powerline posted this tweet from the now insane Laurence Tribe:

Laurence Tribe

@tribelaw

Not at all. It looks like Russia picked Tillerson to be a Putin puppet, then pushed Trump to fire Tillerson when he proved to be an unreliable puppet. No mystery there. https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/973575107405864960 …
3:36 PM - Mar 13, 2018

4,558
2,353 people are talking about this


Tribe was mentioned as a possible supreme court nominee if Kerry Had won in 2004.

Jon Ericson said...

I think there's an awful lot of blackmail going on these days.
Don't you?

Jaq said...

We've moved on. She’s done - kaput, finito.

And yet, she is still making news, her book was a best seller. People were still buying tickets to see her on her recent book tour. But yeah, there is a certain set of web commenters that seem finally able to see the things that we have been saying about the Clintons for decades, but that doesn’t mean you get to pretend you didn’t just recently nominate her for president and that nobody else has taken her place at the top of the party.

Chris N said...

Lean Forward And Fall Down The Stairs!

***And have a group of grubby strivers gather around your pantsuit to brand-manage your personal and professional failures to a group of even grubbier strivers.

May you get the bad bust on some ill-forgotten highway rest-stop you deserve,

Chris N said...

‘ill-forgotten?’

Mr. Forward said...

Darrell with *50 stairs ahead” wins the thread.
Those steps are ancient enough to be worn down in the middle bobsled style, it’s just the kind of thing you don’t see with cataracts. Got mine removed recently and pratfalls are down 93%.

Robert Cook said...

"She's an asshole. Like most liberals."

Except...she's always been a Goldwater Girl.

Robert Cook said...

"I think she went into 2016 thinking she had to win over the extreme Left (who would otherwise opt for Sanders), and struggling with all the ways that under Obama, her party had become more and more extreme..."

Really? Extremely middle-of-the-road corporate servants, sure.

"...to the point that her husband was turning into a hate object for governing as a moderate during the 90s (gutting welfare, signing NAFTA, signing the defense of marriage act, etc.)"

So, gutting welfare, (which he did), signing NAFTA, (which he did), and signing the defense of marriage act (which he did), are the acts of a "moderate?" I'd say they're the acts of a solid right-wing politician.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Except...she's always been a Goldwater Girl.

Oh please. She was that for a couple of seconds. She's a statist universal everything big government - government insider cronie to the bitter end... circa now and the last 30 years.

Bilwick said...

The classism is interesting to me because I've always associated it with middle- and upper-middle-class Republicans, especially those with a Calvinistic religious background. But in recent years I've noticed it more and more in the left-wing online commentariat, especially where the Stupid Left devolves into the Crazy Left (few of whom, I suspect, are from the middle- or upper-middle classes). I've encountered quite a few (enough to see a pattern) Crazy Left commenters dismissing those of us who like liberty as being lower class: one trope was that we were all unemployed adults writing from our parents' basements. Now that same worldview is reflected in the pronunciamemtoes of Queen Cacklepants. Strange, and interesting.

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