It's confusing to be a deplorable
There's not much diversity at a Donald Trump rally. You look at the people standing behind him and you'll see two colors. White for the color of their skin and red for the color of their MAGA hats.
They love to chant. Whenever the name of Hillary Clinton is mentioned, they'll immediately break into their "Lock her up" rant. Hillary had a name for these folks. Deplorables!
It's not easy being a deplorable in 2019. Sure, their core beliefs are simple. If you look like them and believe in their same God, it's all good. But what happens when someone who they don't like says something that they one hundred percent believe? Quite the conundrum! Conflicted!
Let's go back two years. August 2017. Charlottesville, Virginia. Unite the Right rally. White supremacists took to the streets. You could see them carrying confederate flags and semi-automatic rifles. You could hear their chants of "Jews will not replace us." The deplorables were good with this. When Trump responded with "good people on both sides", it confirmed their beliefs. Life was good for the deplorables. It was easy.
We move ahead to 2019. The Democrats take back control of the House. Lots of them are women. Lots of them are people with color. Lots of them have progressive views. All things deplorables hate.
One of the new members is Ilhan Omar. She's a Muslim woman from Minnesota. You know deplorables can't like that. She's at the top of their hit list. Omar has a reputation for making controversial statements. Most of them have been critical of Israel and it's government. In a 2012 tweet, she wrote, "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." Omar apologized for this. In February 2019, she doubled down with a "It's all about the Benjamins baby" tweet, in reference to American politicians' support for Israel. Democratic House leadership condemned her remark. Omar apologized again. She seems to apologize a lot!
If you're a deplorable, how do you feel about all of this? She's a woman and a Muslim and you don't hate that. She's also makes antisemitic remarks and you're fine with that. Conflicted? Confused? It's about to get worse...much worse.
In 2019, when things go bad, you know Donald Trump is involved. Last week, he decided to take on some of the new congresswomen. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Omar. All four women of color. The Squad! He said the foursome hates our country and Israel. He called them racists and antisemitic. Trump said they "should go back to the places from which they came." Go back to those shithole countries, even though all of them are American citizens.
A few days later, Trump continued his attack at a rally in Orlando, Florida.
"They never have anything good to say. That's why I say, 'Hey if you don’t like it, let 'em leave, let 'em leave.' ... I think in some cases they hate our country."
He called out Omar specifically. That led to the "Send her back' chants. Over and over and over again...while Trump just stood aside and watched. His silence and implied approval made it all okay. But was it really? Were things all good in the world of the deplorable?
Just a few months earlier, they were fine with what Omar said. Yeah, they may hate the way she looks. Yeah, they may hate her religion. But the words were good...at least about this topic. Suddenly everything changes.
So if you're a deplorable, now what do you do? What's next? He's just condemned racism and antisemitism. Both of those are a big part of your identity. You can't help but to be conflicted. It's going to take a lot of thinking to get this right...although thinking isn't a big part of your skill set.
If you're a deplorable, life used to be easy. It was simple. You had a set of beliefs and you stuck to them. Change? Nothing in their world changed. Change was bad. But now there are challenges in those beliefs. It's suddenly isn't as easy. It's confusing, isn't it? Hey deplorables, welcome to 2019. Welcome to what the rest of us have been dealing with for the last two years.
Related Post: Is being a racist an impeachable offense?
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