Recently, Hillary Clinton received criticism for condemning at least half of Trump supporters as “irredeemable” saying they belonged in a “basket of deplorables”. Clinton’s critique of her opponent's followers as overwhelming racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted was criticized by many but supported by some data. But is it right to say that that large a chunk of America is beyond all hope, unable to be reconciled with?
Since it began, Trump’s campaign has looked more and more like something you would expect to see on reality TV. He has made outrageous proposals and shockingly offensive statements, again and again, to stay in the spotlight week after week. His supporters believe that he can help them because he is an irreverent outsider unbound by the evil ‘establishment.’ They have flocked to the Manhattan billionaire in the midst of ordinarily disqualifying attacks on Mexican immigrants, American prisoners of war, a Hispanic judge, and the family of a deceased veteran, to name only a few. They stood by him despite, or more likely because of, his conspiracy theories and fear mongering. Trump has been condemned as the most dishonest candidate in this election cycle by many political outlets; but Trump’s supporters, disproportionately white, male, and without any college education, remain.
It seems like Trump’s supporters are just as Clinton has said - driven primarily by prejudice and disdain. This is a very pessimistic view, which I believe incorrectly attributes Trump’s success to malice. Trump supporters could simply be ignorant, misled by their candidate's braggadocio and overconfidence. Perhaps most of Trump’s supporters are not able to spot his falsehoods, because, just like Trump, they lack the perspective needed to empathize with the millions of people Trump has offended and disgusted and aren't knowledgeable about world affairs. It is easy for individuals who are not knowledgeable about a subject to be blind as to how much they don’t know, leading to misguided conclusions and hyper-partisanship. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which may explain both Trump and his supporters according to David Dunning, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan. It is not that they are too uninformed, but rather that they do not know just how uninformed they are.
Trump knows perhaps most of all how much of his support relies on a lack of informed voters. After his win in the Nevada caucus, Trump gleefully declared that he “loves poorly educated people”. In a poll done by CNN shortly after his Nevada victory, he maintained 60% support from those with a high school education or less.
The argument could definitely be made that many of those individuals who support Trump are so-called ‘deplorables,' but we should give them the benefit of the doubt. It is more constructive to assume that they might be more willfully ignorant than malevolent. If we condemn the majority of Trumps supporters, more than 40 % of American voters according to some polls, we are condemning our fellow Americans, our neighbors, and in the end, ourselves.
