Earlier this week, a video leaked of Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser suggesting that about half of Donald Trump's supporters fell into a "basket of deplorables." Right-wing figures and the media pounced on the remarks, criticizing her for insulting a large portion of the electorate.
What was seldom mentioned is that Donald Trump regularly insults entire demographic groups, and when he does, it's simply seen as straight-shooting on the right.
It's also worth noting that Clinton was simply expanding upon what she has earlier said. She's noted before that many hate organizations and generally terrible figures in America support Trump with an unsettling degree of enthusiasm. So it follows that if some terrible people support Trump, some of Trump's supporters must be terrible people. Clinton specifically mentions sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia and Islamophobia in her remarks.
If half of Trump's supporters, or roughly 20 percent of Americans, have views that fit those categories, Clinton is right, and it would be unfair to criticize her for speaking the truth. So what do the facts say?
Roughly 70 percent of Americans don't believe there's a pay gap between men and women, even though statistics routinely demonstrate that there is. Nineteen percent believe divorce is always morally wrong, even though prior to its legalization, women were often trapped in abusive relationships. Twenty-nine percent of likely 2012 GOP primary voters in Mississippi, one of Trump's strongest states, believed interracial marriage should be illegal.
In terms of LGBTQ rights, 31 percent of Trump supporters in the South Carolina primary wanted to ban LGBTQ people from entering the country. Fifty-six percent of North Carolinians believe transgender people need to use the restroom of the gender they were assigned at birth. Only about a third of Republicans support same-sex marriage.
As far as Islamophobia goes, most American voters support a ban on Muslims entering the country. Republicans like Muslims far less than any other religious group, save atheists. Roughly a third of them think the religion should be banned in America. One poll found that 37 percent of Americans are afraid that Muslims, a small minority group in every state, will somehow enforce Sharia law. Almost three out of five Trump supporters don't believe Obama was born in the United States and only 13 percent believe that Obama is actually a Christian.
Thirteen percent of Americans also disapproved of Lincoln's steps to free the slaves. Another 17 percent aren't sure how they feel about it. The same poll found 22 percent of Americans approved of Japanese internment camps and 18 percent disapprove of the executive order that desegregated the military.
I could really go on. But it's worth noting that not even Mike Pence, Trump's running mate and an embarrassment to Indiana, could bring himself to say that a former KKK grand wizard is "deplorable." Pence said he couldn't because the Trump campaign refuses to resort to "name calling" in his campaign against Crooked Hillary, just like it took the high road with Lyin' Ted, Little Marco and Low-Energy Jeb.
The point is that a lot of Trump supporters, conservatives and Americans in general hold views that are definitely sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic or racist. Clinton wasn't wrong. In fact, we need to call out those people more and make it clear that their views run counter to the spirits of liberty and equality.