On September 9, 2016, Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton gave a speech which many thought was a major mistake.  Just to remind you…

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?  The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.

The other half feel that the government has let them down and are desperate for change.  Those are the people we have to understand and empathize with as well.

Politics aside, it is time we face the truth.  She was only half right.  Not about the 50 percent in paragraph one.  This morning as I listened to MSNBC’s Julia Ainsley describe the conditions she observed at detention centers on the Texas border, of infants and children living in cages following separation from parents seeking asylum in the United States,  I thought of Edmund Burke.  How many times have we been reminded of the following excerpt from his 1770 treatise on “The Cause of Present Discontents.”

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

But it is the longer version, which suggests that a dispersed population, when not called to a common ideal by its leaders, are more likely to veer from a path of moral decency.

Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable.

And that is where Clinton is wrong.  It is the sins of omission that make the other half in paragraph two of her speech just as deplorable, if not more so.  They do not deserve our understanding or sympathy.  In contrast to those who she said Donald Trump lifts up, these enablers lift him up.

They lift him up when they do not speak out against the atrocity of caging babies and children without the barest of life’s necessities.

They lift him up when evangelicals support his policies and actions which violate the teachings of the gospels of the person they claim provides the path to heaven.

They lift him up when they refuse to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution.

They lift him up when they say they know he lies but it does not matter.

They lift him up when they accept reparations for unwise trade policies but reject compensation for those who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow.

They lift him up when they follow his lead and see themselves as victims of multiple bogeymen.

So, I’m sorry Hillary, but I have no empathy.  Or understanding.  In fact, I take pride in not understanding what motivates these lemmings.  Just the opposite.  When they talk about the Trump base they are not kidding.  Just look up the word “base” in Roget’s Thesaurus.  Vulgar. Low. Corrupt. Depraved. Foul. Offensive. Shoddy. Coarse.  Contemptible. Loathsome. Worthless.  Wretched.

If only the following official statement by the Southern Baptist Church were true.

The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.

It would be enough to make this devout agnostic believe, just maybe, there is a God.

POSTSCRIPT

Twice on Sunday, Mike Pence passed the buck when asked what he and Trump could do to alleviate the conditions in the youth detention centers.  Echoing his puppet master, he claimed he was hoping Congress would get them out of this mess by appropriating additional funds to provide assistance for these innocent victims of Trump’s immigration policies.  Mr. Pence, just in case you forgot, let me remind you.

You and Donald found $35 BILLION to bail out farmers who are suffering from your trade policies.

You and Donald found a way to shift funds from other Department of Defense projects to begin building your unnecessary border wall.

And your boss never seems to have a problem finding the $3.4 million it costs every time he flies down to Mar-a-Lago (according to official estimates by the General Accounting Office).

I wonder how many sleeping bags, tooth brushes, toothpaste, soap and diapers these same dollars would have bought.  You seem to have money for everything else.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP