Being American Does Not Make You Great (Or Even Non-Deplorable)

When Hilary Clinton recently described many of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”, the Trump campaigned professed to be aghast, yes aghast, that Clinton would have the audacity to attack people who, sure, supported the racist policies of a deranged, dangerously unqualified hatemonger, but more importantly, were Americans.

And we all know what Americans are, right? They’re hard-working, God-fearing, flag-waving and above reproach. Oh sure, Trump has previously launched insane attacks on Americans such as the current President of the United States (although to be fair, that was motivated largely by racism and naked opportunism), John McCain for being weak and pathetic enough to be captured and tortured by the Viet Cong while Trump, the smart cookie, sat the war out with an ouchie on his foot, a disabled reporter and the family of a Muslim soldier who gave his life for a country that increasingly fears and reviles people Muslims, in no small part because of Trump himself.

And sure, Trump is traveling around the country talking about how weak, pathetic and illegitimate the president is, how our military has been deliberately undermined to the point of helplessness and how we’re devolving into a third-world mess. Sure, Trump’s very campaign slogan implies that America has lost its greatness and needs a crazy-haired TV clown and his fascist measures to restore it.

Here’s the thing: being American does not inherently make you great. In fact, the more you derive your identity, self-worth and self-esteem out of being born in one part of the planet rather than another, the less likely you are to make a genuine contribution to the world. And the notion that being born in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois instead of Cozumel, Mexico makes you superior is exactly the kind of crazed narcissism that’s poisonous in both a person and a country.

And like most forms of narcissism, nationalism, particularly of the white nationalist variety pushed by Trump, is bred of insecurity, of fear, of the vague but palpable sense that maybe basing your identity around a random trick of geography is actually a sign of profound weakness.

This narcissism and insecurity depicts any criticism of Americans in the abstract as an unforgivable insults to all Americans and to our country as a whole. Yet it’s worth noting that this only applies to Democrats and Progressives. Trump can “neg” the populace to his heart’s content (to use a noxious but appropriate term from pick-up artist circles) by depicting African-Americans as a desperate group of losers with “nothing to lose” by voting for him. He can criticize American heroes for not being as heroic as he himself would like to pretend he would be if he weren’t such a gutless coward. He can attack groups who have made enormous contributions to our country, like Mexicans, yet he somehow retains an image not just as a patriot but as a tacky, gaudy caricature of patriotism.

But if Obama expresses sadness and frustration over how little we’ve done to end gun violence, or acknowledges the insidiousness and pervasiveness of racism he’s an America-hating traitor trying to spark a race war and bring down our country from the inside. And if Clinton describes followers of a man preaching hate as deplorables, then she’s an elite with contempt for the American people.

I would like to reiterate that being American doesn’t make you great. At all. Lots of Americans are terrible. John Wayne Gacy was an American. Roy Cohn, Trump’s beloved mentor in the ways of pure evil, was an American. I’ve heard people say that Donald Trump himself is an American but until I see his long form birth certificate, I’m not going to believe it.

Trump’s supporters are a basket of deplorables. Their status as Americans in no way, shape, or form, should make them immune to criticism. Hell, their status as people who support an ignorant egotist peddling impossible yet hateful and anti-American ideas is exactly what should make them subject to criticism. I fear and despise Trump but I fear his supporters even more. He’s one horrible, horrible man but they’re a movement with terrifying implications for our nation’s future.

I went to Cleveland in July to cover the Republican National convention for my new book 7 Days In Ohio: Trump, The Gathering of the Juggalos And The Summer Everything Went Insane and “basket of deplorables” is the perfect phrase to describe Trump’s supporters. These are desperate human beings motivated by fear and anger, white rage and shrieking misogyny.

If you’re looking for further, conclusive proof that a lot of Americans are not great, consider this: Donald Trump apparently has a pretty good chance of being elected president. Case closed.