Impolite Company

My dear Republican friends,

Hate is crippling. A vivid case in point is how you hate Hillary Clinton. So much that you can’t learn from her. Not even from her missteps.

I’ve said it before, a little over six years ago, just after Donald Trump was elected president. I’ll say it again, it’s the first rule of politics. Never insult voters. Hillary Clinton broke that cardinal rule when she said out loud—in front of a live microphone—what most left wingers were thinking then and are still thinking now. That Trump’s supporters are nothing but a “basket of deplorables.”

I’d be lavishly rich if I had a dollar for every time one liberal or another has been heard saying working-class whites and especially rural folks are voting against their own interests. I heard it six, seven years ago. I still hear it. Not even paying the steep price of the Trump presidency and its aftermath has stopped them from saying it.

I challenge this tired old canard every time I hear it. To little or no effect. If I’ve t…