Surely you remember the “basket of deplorables.”
That was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 characterization of some Donald Trump supporters. Observers saw it as a major gaffe, and conservatives erupted in hot, “How dare you!” indignation at the idea there was anything deplorable about voting for a lying, racist, misogynistic, vagina-grabbing, deadbeat.
Few people, if any, dared point out the obvious. Which is that Clinton was right.
Well, welcome to déjà vu all over again. Recently on CNN, Don Lemon presided over a segment about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently blew up at an NPR reporter for having the temerity to ask him about Ukraine. The reporter says Pompeo challenged her to find that country on a map, which she did. Panelist Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist, opined that Pompeo “knows deep within his heart that Donald Trump couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter U and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it.”
At which Lemon started laughing and could not stop. He lowered his head to the desk as Wilson and a second panelist, New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, adopted dumb rube accents in mockery of Trump supporters.