America's Democrats can't risk another 'basket of deplorables' moment

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Remember Hillary Clinton’s “ basket of deplorables “ moment? The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee stood at a lectern emblazoned with the inclusive message “Stronger Together” and basically let rip at a sizeable proportion of America. Half of Donald Trump’s supporters, she said, were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it”.

They were, she said, laughing, a “ basket of deplorables “.

The disdain set off a firestorm two months before election day and Mrs Clinton quickly apologised, but still lost to Mr Trump. It was a teachable moment for the Democratic Party, except that it seems to have learnt nothing from the incident.

In 2021, after Terry McAuliffe’s defeat to Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race, liberal Twitter, Democratic Twitter and highly educated Twitter have been slagging off Mr Youngkin’s voters as dupes or disguised racists.

This is not the way to appeal to voters. Especially when the following points e…