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Rumination On The Deplorables

Oct 06, 2016
by Caroline Miller
Barry Goldwater, deplorables, George Wallace, Occupy Wall Street, populism, Ross Perot, Tea Party
6 Comments

I wish Hillary hadn’t said it.  Calling a person “deplorable” doesn’t invite discussion.  True, deplorable people exist, but that’s the point.  They exist.  The question is how to deal with them.  Making them feel like pariahs exacerbates the problem because they feel like pariahs already.  What’s more, as  numbers of people have been left behind in a global world, they’ve formed tribes to reinforce their world view that the system is  “rigged” and that includes Tea Party members, Occupy Wall Streeter folks and everyone in between.

Mostly, they are people attempting to apply old values to an environment that has radically altered.   We’ve seen this fever break out before when Barry Goldwater, George Wallace and Ross Perot were populist champions for many.  They are the outliers, right and left, from Appalachia to Silicon valley where home may be on  the street.  Some live in fear.  Others take solace in anger

jobless-man

courtesy of washingtonpost.com

Oddly enough, though they hold in their midst the entire, divergent  spectrum of political thought, what they share is a fierce hunger for justice and opportunity.  What they share is a belief in their country, a belief in their family and a love of their flag.  What they share is the view that their country has let them down. They have been betrayed by Wall Street, Main Street, educational institutions, health care systems and their elected leaders.  In response, they riot, practice intolerance or descend into self destructive addictions like alcohol and drugs.  (Blog 5/20/16)

If they have become deplorable, we have helped to make them so.  Rather than acknowledge their economic needs, we think of them as trash and punch holes in the welfare system.  Rather than hear their cries, we make cartoons of them, call them ignorant, backward, and deplorable.  By making them seem less like one of us, we don’t have to care.  True, they may rage against foreigners, minorities or women and it shouldn’t be tolerated, but it is  understandable.  Made to feel the lowest of the low, we have let them believe they are nothing.  What a way to treat our fellow Americans, some of them veterans.

America needs leaders who can heal the divides in this country.  But each citizen has a role to play.  Let us begin with our own prejudices.  Let us acknowledge  there are no deplorables among us. Only the forgotten. 

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6 Comments
  1. Chuck October 6, 2016 at 7:31 am Reply
    One of your best.
    • Caroline Miller October 6, 2016 at 8:14 am Reply
      Sadly, one of Hillary's worst.
  2. John Briggs October 6, 2016 at 10:11 am Reply
    Caroline, Thank you for making sense of a phenomenon that the hyper-partisan talkers of the day tend to misunderstand or ignore. Thanks too for doing so in a climate, right and left, so fixated on policy and polemic that it begrudges thoughtful, personal discussion of our shared humanity. John Briggs
    • Caroline Miller October 6, 2016 at 10:17 am Reply
      Thank you for your kind comment, John. What worries me is if I am making sense in this climate, I might be crazy.
  3. Pamela October 7, 2016 at 10:42 am Reply
    I appreciate the core and intention of your posting, but the term did not bother me. I think it is an apt term for people with obvious racist, sexist and xenophobic perspectives. The "deplorables" are not necessarily those with economic need, and in fact are generally middle class or better white folk who are finding their privilege challenged. This isn't JUST about the disenfranchised. Perhaps contextualizing the term to behavior would have been a better option, but after so many chants of "lock her up," or "Trump that bitch," one just may be human enough to respond.
    • Caroline Miller October 7, 2016 at 11:04 am Reply
      I understand your point of view,Pamela. Mean words and behavior need to be confronted. But there are no throw away people in my world, and I suspect in yours.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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