The Privilege and Arrogance of the Democratic Elite

More and more I'm seeing the problem of the Hillary Clinton campaign, Democratic establishment, and the Democrats most partisan supporters revolves around two issues:

Lack of Respect and Lack of Self-Reflection

Not just predictable lack of respect for their opponents, but a lack of respect for allies that goes even deeper.
This lack of respect stems from arrogance that is born out of a complete inability for self-reflection.

A good example of this is the woman who claimed that “There’s a special place in hell" for women that don't vote for Hillary, had no problem with being responsible for the deaths of half a million children. She already has a special place reserved for her.
Another example of lack of respect is how President Obama talks to black voters and the “personal insult” if they don't fall into line.

“My name might not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot,” he insisted.
This wasn’t the first time the president has used a Congressional Black Caucus forum to scold black people for insufficient appreciation of his leadership. In 2011, after black lawmakers began criticizing the president’s lack of attention to the economic problems of the underclass, he told the group, “I expect all of you to march with me and press on,” adding that they should “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.” Some black commentators took umbrage at his tone.
“Funny, isn’t it, how Obama always gets the nerve to say shut up when he’s addressing a friendly audience?” wrote the Washington Post’s Courtland Milloy.

It requires a certain level of privilege to speak to people with legitimate grievances and show them no respect.
This privilege comes most often from those tone-deaf people who are quick to tell you to "check your privilege". This privilege extends to expecting your political support while doing absolutely nothing to deserve it.

Five years later, the lectures continue while progress in the Obama era remains elusive to many blacks, which might explain the lack of black enthusiasm for a Democratic successor. By almost any traditional metric—homeownership, median incomes, labor participation, poverty—blacks are worse off today than they were at the start of Mr. Obama’s first term. The jobless rate for blacks has improved since 2009, but it’s improved even more for whites, which means the racial gap in unemployment has gotten wider.

Remember how Democrats were supposed to be riding a demographic wave to a permanent majority? It was because young people have rejected Republican Party values. Hillary and the Democrats didn't have to do anything to get their votes. Just sit back and watch those Millennials vote 'D', right?

At a time when Americans across the political spectrum are turning against the status quo, Clinton seems to be embracing it. She spent weeks in August wooing millionaire donors in Silicon Valley and Martha’s Vineyard, and has chased endorsements from Bush-era official and war criminals like Henry Kissinger. It’s out of frustration that millennials will register protest votes, not ignorance.

It requires a certain level of arrogance to just expect idealistic young people to give up their values for you. In the long-run those Millennials will fail to become loyal to your party brand, so say goodbye to your Demographic Inevitability.

However, the epitome of this lack of self-reflection and lack of respect is Hillary's 'basket of deplorables' comment (“basket of deplorables…. racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic”) and the liberals rush to defend the comment.
There are two things, implied but unsaid, in that comment.

1. Hillary and Democrats are in a position of judging who is deplorable and who isn't.

On this point, Hillary might be right.

...Hillary’s word choice got me thinking about her and her friends and team.
“Deplorables?” How about Madeline Albright, the noxious woman who championed the mass-murderous bombing of Serbia and told the nation on CBS News that the death of half a million Iraqi children thanks to U.S.-led “economic sanctions” was a “price worth paying” for the advance of U.S. policy goals?
Another gone one is Henry Kissinger. “Among the war profiteers, bankers and industrialists that Mrs. Clinton counts, opportunistically or not, among her friends,” Rob Urie notes, “Henry Kissinger holds a special place in human history. With a laundry list of crimes against humanity to his ‘credit,’ the term deplorable applied to Mr. Kissinger would be a kindness”...
There’s also Hillary’s campaign manager, John Podesta. He’s a legendary ruling-class operative. ...
Tim Kaine, Hillary’s running mate? He’s a financial-sector darling who backed fast-tracking the arch-global corporatist, Wall Street-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
What about Robert Rubin, the great Wall Street maestro behind “Clintonomics” and a great friend of Bill and Hill?...
I could go on with Hillary friends and allies but Hillary might want to take a look in the mirror when searching out deplorable Americans. It’s not for nothing that Hillary Clinton is known on Wall Street as “Lady Klynton Kissinger Sachs.”

So when it comes to being deplorable, Hillary knows what she is talking about.

However, the other thing implied but unsaid in Hillary's comment is the key:

2. Democratic voters aren't deplorable.

Specifically, Democratic voters aren't racists.
For instance, let's look at a Slate writerr who rushed to the defense of Hillary's 'basket of deplorables" comment.

In June, Reuters measured the racial attitudes of Clinton, Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich supporters. A significant number of supporters for each candidate voiced negative attitudes about black Americans. But Trump backers stood out in their animus. Nearly 50 percent said blacks were “more violent” than whites; almost as many said that blacks were “more criminal than whites.” More than 40 percent said that blacks were “more rude” than whites, and more than 30 percent said that blacks were “lazier” than whites.

Without a doubt those are some awful numbers. No question about it.
But what the Slate writer doesn't do (and no one who has defended Hillary's comment has done) is tell you what the percentages were for Hillary supporters. Let me tell you what they were.

31 percent of Hillary supporters said blacks were “more violent” than whites.
32 percent of Hillary supporters said blacks were “more criminal than whites.”
30 percent of Hillary supporters said that blacks were “more rude” than whites
25 percent of Hillary supporters said that blacks were “lazier” than whites

So if you were to change Hillary's comment to reflect reality it would be something like this:

"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.
Meanwhile, only a third of my supporters are deplorable racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic. Which means I can assume a very tenuous moral high ground and cast the first stone from my glass house, just like Jesus Christ would want me to."

This complete lack of self-awareness is typical of Hillary supporters.

They have no issue with correctly calling out Trump's immigration policies as xenophobic, while not having a single word to say about the xenophobic policies of the current Deporter-in-Chief.

They have no issue with correctly calling out the racist police killings of brown-skinned men on our streets, but can't spare a single word to condemn our racist assassinations of brown-skinned men overseas in our War of Terror.

I believe this is by design. Hillary may have apologized for her basket of deplorables comment, but nothing she says is by mistake. She apologized to Trump supporters, but she practically winked at her own self-unaware supporters while doing so.

We may make sense of this by suggesting that Hillary’s remarks were aimed not at Trump supporters but at progressives. Her purpose is to shame liberal voters who might be willing to consider and discuss the issues that Donald Trump is raising in a rational way. After all, if you speak in favor of Trump because you support some of his ideas, you too may be quickly classified as a “deplorable.” In that case you will be lucky if you have any friends if you are a “progressive.” This applies most acutely to foreign policy where Clinton demonizes Putin as “Hitler” whereas Trump wants to “get along” with him, a policy of détente. If you agree with Trump’s détente, then be very quiet about it. The basket awaits you.
Hillary knows that progressives fear like death itself the racist label – and rightly so given the nature of the racism beast. In fact today no American, other than a handful of obscure, powerless troglodytes, wants that label.
Yes, my dear progressive, this ploy is meant to scare you out of rational thought about issues of war, peace and Empire, which can affect the very survival of human civilization. And the self-same shaming ploy is everywhere to be found in outlets consulted daily by liberals– from the boring NPR to the meandering prose of the NYT and throughout the mainstream media.

Bully, shame, terrify your base. Whatever it takes, as long as it doesn't require respect.

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