WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 If I see the phrase basket of deplorables, I 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:04.639 am willing to bet you have an immediate, almost 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:07.179 visceral reaction. Absolutely. It doesn't matter 00:00:07.179 --> 00:00:09.439 who you voted for or even if you follow politics. 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.220 Those words, they just, they take you right back 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:15.779 to 2016. It's arguably the phrase that defined 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.079 that entire election, maybe that whole era of 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.120 politics. It's definitely in the Hall of Fame. 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.579 But the thing is, and this is what we need to 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:25.719 get into, for most people, the memory just stops 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.070 there. It stops at the headline, at the insult 00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:30.109 itself. And that's a huge missed opportunity 00:00:30.109 --> 00:00:32.450 to understand what was really going on. It is. 00:00:32.609 --> 00:00:34.850 Which is exactly why we're here. For this deep 00:00:34.850 --> 00:00:37.630 dive, we've gone through the speech transcripts, 00:00:37.630 --> 00:00:40.390 campaign memos, post -election analyses, all 00:00:40.390 --> 00:00:42.789 of it. Right. And look, we're not here to relitigate 00:00:42.789 --> 00:00:45.750 2016. No, that's been done to death. Our mission 00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:48.109 today is really to dissect this as a phenomenon. 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:51.049 We want to understand how a strategy that's designed 00:00:51.049 --> 00:00:54.149 to divide your opposition actually ends up unifying 00:00:54.149 --> 00:00:56.899 them. How does an insult, something meant to 00:00:56.899 --> 00:00:59.759 shame people, become a badge of honor? Right. 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:02.280 Usually you insult someone, they get mad. In 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:03.640 this case, they went out and bought T -shirts. 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:05.659 It's fascinating. Exactly. So let's get into 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.900 it. The scene, the context. It's everything here. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.140 It's September 9th, 2016. Where is Hillary Clinton? 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:15.780 She's in New York City. And the venue is really 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.480 crucial. She's at an LGBT campaign fundraiser 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:21.359 at Cipriani Wall Street. Cipriani Wall Street. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.120 So an opulent place. Oh, yeah. It's a former 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:28.400 bank building, you know, massive marble columns, 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:32.540 very high society, very wealthy and crucially, 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.359 very friendly room for her. Barbra Streisand 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:37.400 had just performed. OK, so that's key. This is 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:39.480 not a rally in Ohio with a mixed crowd. This 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:42.060 is a private event with donors. Precisely. And 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.459 that dictates the tone. Right. Politicians tend 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:46.040 to speak a little more loosely in those settings. 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.400 They feel safe, like they're among friends. The 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:50.420 filter comes off. And she gets up on stage, starts 00:01:50.420 --> 00:01:52.439 talking about Trump supporters and decides to 00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:55.040 categorize them. This is the moment. But what's 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.340 so interesting is how she starts the sentence, 00:01:57.560 --> 00:01:59.879 something nobody ever remembers. She almost gives 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:02.540 herself a legal out. She says, and this is a 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.719 direct quote. to just be grossly generalistic. 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.439 She's literally flagging, hey, I'm about to paint 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:10.139 with a really broad brush here. And then she 00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:12.340 drops the line. And she drops it. You could put 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:14.979 half of Trump supporters into what I call the 00:02:14.979 --> 00:02:17.639 basket of deplorables. The word half. Every time 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:19.599 I read that, it's the word half that just stops 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:22.039 you in your tracks. It's the dynamite in the 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:24.699 sentence. It really is. It's a mathematical claim. 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:27.699 It's not some. It's not a few. If Trump gets 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:30.120 60 million votes, she is literally talking about 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:33.840 30 million people. That specific number half 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:36.740 is what made it sound like a clinical diagnosis, 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:39.580 not just some off -the -cuff observation. And 00:02:39.580 --> 00:02:42.360 she didn't stop there. She defined what she meant. 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:45.710 She gives a list. A whole list, she says. racist, 00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:48.550 sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic. 00:02:48.610 --> 00:02:50.689 Wow. And she makes this really interesting point 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:52.710 about the Internet, which, looking back, is so 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:55.330 prescient. She said Trump had lifted them up, 00:02:55.370 --> 00:02:57.909 that he'd given a platform to websites that used 00:02:57.909 --> 00:03:00.770 to have maybe 11 ,000 readers and now had 11 00:03:00.770 --> 00:03:03.490 million. She was trying to draw a direct line 00:03:03.490 --> 00:03:05.729 between the darker corners of the Internet, the 00:03:05.729 --> 00:03:08.310 alt -right, and the mainstream Republican ticket. 00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:12.729 Exactly. She calls them irredeemable. Says they 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:16.939 are not. And that's the soundbite that played 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:21.919 on a loop for the next two months. But, and this 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:23.319 is the part that I think will surprise a lot 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.060 of people, there was a second basket. The forgotten 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:28.219 basket. I honestly don't think I'd retain this 00:03:28.219 --> 00:03:30.000 part at all until we started prepping for this. 00:03:30.379 --> 00:03:32.340 It's almost completely written out of the story. 00:03:32.830 --> 00:03:36.229 Immediately after the deplorables part, she pivots 00:03:36.229 --> 00:03:38.110 to the other half of his supporters. And the 00:03:38.110 --> 00:03:40.169 tone just completely shifts, doesn't it? A complete 00:03:40.169 --> 00:03:42.590 180. She stops talking about racism and starts 00:03:42.590 --> 00:03:45.409 talking about, you know, economics, about people 00:03:45.409 --> 00:03:47.150 who feel the government and the economy have 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:49.169 left them behind. She gets surprisingly specific 00:03:49.169 --> 00:03:53.810 and empathetic. Very. She mentions people seeing 00:03:53.810 --> 00:03:56.490 their jobs disappear. And then she uses this 00:03:56.490 --> 00:04:00.949 incredibly specific, tragic image. Losing a child 00:04:00.949 --> 00:04:03.250 to the heroin epidemic. Yeah, that's not an insult. 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:06.110 That's trying to connect. It really is. And she 00:04:06.110 --> 00:04:07.990 concludes by saying these people are desperate 00:04:07.990 --> 00:04:10.129 for change and that, quote, those are people 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:12.590 we have to understand and empathize with. OK, 00:04:12.669 --> 00:04:15.669 so if she has this whole nuanced theory, basket 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:18.589 A is the fringe, basket B is the economically 00:04:18.589 --> 00:04:22.000 anxious. Why did it blow up so badly? Was the 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:24.540 deplorables line just a slip of the tongue? No, 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.060 all the evidence suggests this was not an accident, 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:29.720 not a gaffe in the traditional sense. She'd actually 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:32.379 been road testing this idea for weeks. Really? 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:35.819 This is a planned strategy. It seems so. Just 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.439 a few weeks earlier in a speech in Reno, she 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.139 talked about Trump helping a radical fringe take 00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:44.180 over the GOP, and she explicitly mentioned the 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:47.790 alt -right. The day before this fundraiser, she 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.329 did an interview on Israel's Channel 2 and used 00:04:50.329 --> 00:04:53.170 the exact same two big baskets metaphor. So it 00:04:53.170 --> 00:04:55.269 was a deliberate strategy. What was the goal 00:04:55.269 --> 00:04:57.629 then? Why would you want to insult millions of 00:04:57.629 --> 00:05:00.470 potential voters? It's a classic divide and conquer 00:05:00.470 --> 00:05:03.410 play. You have to remember, in 2016, there were 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:06.670 a lot of moderate establishment Republicans who 00:05:06.670 --> 00:05:08.610 were deeply uncomfortable with Trump. The never 00:05:08.610 --> 00:05:12.029 Trumpers. The Never Trumpers, exactly. The campaign 00:05:12.029 --> 00:05:15.329 strategy was to try and peel them away, to separate 00:05:15.329 --> 00:05:18.310 those everyday Republicans from the alt -right. 00:05:18.470 --> 00:05:21.089 So force them to look at the people in that first 00:05:21.089 --> 00:05:24.310 basket and say, I'm not with them. Right. She 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:26.110 was trying to shame them out of that coalition. 00:05:26.449 --> 00:05:29.589 And she was bringing proof, too. In her speeches, 00:05:29.670 --> 00:05:31.410 she was talking about Steve Bannon running the 00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:34.329 campaign, his ties to Breitbart News. She was 00:05:34.329 --> 00:05:36.550 even reading Breitbart headlines from the stage. 00:05:36.829 --> 00:05:38.949 What kind of headlines? I mean, things like, 00:05:38.970 --> 00:05:41.629 would you rather your child had feminism or cancer? 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:45.470 Wow. OK. Yeah. So she's holding that up and basically 00:05:45.470 --> 00:05:48.449 saying, see, this isn't your grandfather's Republican 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:50.649 Party. This is something else, something darker. 00:05:51.290 --> 00:05:53.689 But the whole strategy depends on the audience 00:05:53.689 --> 00:05:56.089 actually accepting your categories. And that's 00:05:56.089 --> 00:05:57.889 where it all fell apart. Because of that one 00:05:57.889 --> 00:06:01.569 word. Half. Half. The very next day, the backlash 00:06:01.569 --> 00:06:04.290 is huge. She has to issue a statement. She does. 00:06:04.569 --> 00:06:06.870 But let's be precise about what she regretted. 00:06:06.970 --> 00:06:09.610 She said she regretted saying half. She admitted 00:06:09.610 --> 00:06:12.050 that was wrong. But she stood by the core sentiment. 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.540 She doubled down on condemning Trump for amplifying 00:06:15.540 --> 00:06:18.699 hateful views and voices. But it was too late. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:21.560 The horse wasn't just out of the barn. It was 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:25.120 leading the parade. The GOP pounced. It was the 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.879 perfect gift. It was the rallying cry they'd 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:30.220 been waiting for. Trump's reaction was smart. 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:32.399 He didn't just attack her back. He positioned 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:35.000 himself as a defender. A brilliant populist move. 00:06:35.220 --> 00:06:38.240 He said, you know, while my opponent slanders 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:41.000 you, I call you hardworking American patriots. 00:06:41.709 --> 00:06:44.509 It led him pivot from being the aggressor to 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:46.449 being the protector of the common person against 00:06:46.449 --> 00:06:49.750 this coastal elite. And Mike Pence, his running 00:06:49.750 --> 00:06:52.329 mate, took it even further. Pence said that showing 00:06:52.329 --> 00:06:54.750 that kind of disdain from millions of Americans 00:06:54.750 --> 00:06:57.370 disqualifies her from being president. It just 00:06:57.370 --> 00:06:59.410 fed perfectly into the narrative they were building, 00:06:59.490 --> 00:07:01.310 that the establishment doesn't just disagree 00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:04.189 with you, they actively despise you. Right. Kellyanne 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:06.370 Conway was all over it, saying Clinton had insulted 00:07:06.370 --> 00:07:09.089 the very people she promised to uplift. It confirmed 00:07:09.089 --> 00:07:11.589 every suspicion they wanted voters to have about 00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:15.709 her. But here's the twist. This is what makes 00:07:15.709 --> 00:07:18.910 this story so unique. Usually when a politician 00:07:18.910 --> 00:07:22.589 insults a group, that group gets defensive. They 00:07:22.589 --> 00:07:25.790 deny it. They say, how dare you? Exactly. That's 00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:29.230 not me. But Trump supporters, they didn't run 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:31.620 from it. They embraced it. This is that idea 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:34.019 of reappropriation, right? Taking back a slur. 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:36.740 A perfect example, a stigma reversal. Yeah. You 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:38.759 know, like activists reclaiming the word queer 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.360 or even what happened with nasty woman later 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:43.500 in that same election. They took deplorables, 00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:45.680 a word meant to cast them out, and they wore 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.079 it like armor. And that moment in Miami, I remember 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.139 watching that live on TV and just thinking, this 00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:52.220 is political theater on a whole other level. 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:55.060 The Les Miserables parody. Yes. Trump walks on 00:07:55.060 --> 00:07:57.779 stage and the music playing is, do you hear the 00:07:57.779 --> 00:08:01.009 people sing? From Limby. Which is, you know, 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:02.889 a song about French peasants rising up against 00:08:02.889 --> 00:08:04.790 the monarchy. The irony of a billionaire using 00:08:04.790 --> 00:08:07.649 it. It's thick, yeah. But the giant screen behind 00:08:07.649 --> 00:08:09.970 him, it doesn't say, make America great again. 00:08:10.050 --> 00:08:13.540 It says in that font, le déploie. It was genius. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.579 It turned an insult from an elite into a banner 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:19.019 of rebellion. Suddenly, they weren't deplorables. 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:21.040 They were revolutionaries. And the internet, 00:08:21.139 --> 00:08:23.660 the very place she was criticizing, just exploded. 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:26.980 Oh, the memes were everywhere. Roger Stone, Donald 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:29.920 Trump Jr., they shared that parody movie poster, 00:08:30.139 --> 00:08:32.860 styled after the action movie The Expendables. 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:35.080 But it was called The Deplorables. And it had 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.960 Pepe the Frog on it. Yeah, which was a direct 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:40.500 nod to the alt -right. It was. They were basically 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:42.870 saying to Clinton, You think we're trolls? You 00:08:42.870 --> 00:08:45.649 think we're fringe? Fine. We are. And we're proud 00:08:45.649 --> 00:08:49.289 of it. It completely neutralized the shame she 00:08:49.289 --> 00:08:51.429 was trying to create. So instead of shaming them 00:08:51.429 --> 00:08:53.549 away from the alt -right, she pushed them right 00:08:53.549 --> 00:08:56.409 into its arms, metaphorically speaking. The campaign 00:08:56.409 --> 00:08:59.330 started selling official merchandise. Proud to 00:08:59.330 --> 00:09:01.789 be deplorable, it became an identity. And it 00:09:01.789 --> 00:09:04.750 all culminated in the deplorable. The deplorable. 00:09:05.090 --> 00:09:07.490 Right before the inauguration. January 2017. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.759 a black tie victory lap at the National Press 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:13.500 Building of all places. Named after the insult 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:15.480 that was supposed to destroy them, they were 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:18.139 toasting with champagne to being deplorable. 00:09:18.419 --> 00:09:22.000 So let's analyze this. Did it actually cost her 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.039 the election? I mean, that feels too simple, 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:26.379 but it's the question everyone asks. It's the 00:09:26.379 --> 00:09:29.220 million -dollar question, and analysts are still 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:31.779 fighting about it. The most obvious parallel 00:09:31.779 --> 00:09:35.419 everyone draws is with Mitt Romney in 2012. The 00:09:35.419 --> 00:09:39.909 47 % gaffe. Exactly. Romney had a private fundraiser 00:09:39.909 --> 00:09:42.730 saying 47 percent of Americans are dependent 00:09:42.730 --> 00:09:45.110 on government and see themselves as victims. 00:09:45.330 --> 00:09:47.850 And it just fed this narrative that he was an 00:09:47.850 --> 00:09:50.509 out of touch rich guy. It confirmed a suspicion 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:53.029 people already had. Political attacks really 00:09:53.029 --> 00:09:55.230 stick when they do that. And the argument is 00:09:55.230 --> 00:09:57.870 that basket or deplorables did the exact same 00:09:57.870 --> 00:10:00.279 thing to Clinton. It confirmed the suspicion 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:02.720 that she was an elitist who looked down on working 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:04.679 class people. You also mentioned a historical 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:07.080 parallel I'd never heard of, the vermin comment 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:09.720 in Britain. Right. The columnist Charles Moore 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.059 pointed this out. Back in 1948, a very famous 00:10:13.059 --> 00:10:15.919 labor politician, Nye Bevan, called the Conservative 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:18.500 Party lower than vermin. That's pretty harsh, 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.700 yeah. Caused a huge scandal. And what did the 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:24.159 conservatives do? They formed a vermin club. 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:26.700 They made little lapel pins with rats on them. 00:10:26.940 --> 00:10:29.740 It's the same human impulse. You insult us. We 00:10:29.740 --> 00:10:32.740 form a club. But what about the actual data from 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:36.460 2016? Did this comment move votes? Well, Diane 00:10:36.460 --> 00:10:38.820 Hessen was tracking undecided voters for the 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:41.080 Clinton campaign. She was in focus groups with 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:43.059 them every single day. And she said that after 00:10:43.059 --> 00:10:46.039 that comment, quote, All hell broke loose. All 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:48.500 hell broke loose. Yeah. For her, that was the 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:51.200 moment she saw the largest single shift of undecided 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:54.419 voters away from Clinton and toward Trump. So 00:10:54.419 --> 00:10:56.379 it wasn't just about firing up his base. It was 00:10:56.379 --> 00:10:59.059 about pushing the undecideds away from her. That's 00:10:59.059 --> 00:11:01.399 her argument. And even her own campaign manager, 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.320 Robbie Mook, later admitted it definitely could 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:07.600 have alienated people. Clinton herself, in her 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.019 book What Happened, basically called it a political 00:11:10.019 --> 00:11:12.679 gift to Trump. That's a huge admission. It is. 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:16.600 But... To be fair, there is a counter view. Courtney 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.159 Weaver at the Financial Times argued it's foolish 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.500 to pin an entire election loss on one phrase. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:24.679 There was the Comey letter, the emails, the economy. 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:28.500 A million things. Sure. But even she said, well, 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:30.559 it certainly didn't help. There's that one take 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:32.519 from the political scientist Charles Murray. 00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:35.220 He goes really big with his analysis. Who does? 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:39.000 He suggested that one comment might have changed 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.600 the history of the world. That feels a little 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.830 dramatic. It sounds it. But his argument is interesting. 00:11:44.929 --> 00:11:47.169 He says it wasn't just about the votes. It was 00:11:47.169 --> 00:11:49.950 about crystallizing the entire narrative of the 00:11:49.950 --> 00:11:52.470 culture war. The idea of the new upper class 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:55.549 looking down on everyone else. It drew a line 00:11:55.549 --> 00:11:57.669 in the sand. You were either in the basket or 00:11:57.669 --> 00:11:59.590 you were the one sneering at the basket. She 00:11:59.590 --> 00:12:02.049 wanted to separate people, to isolate a fringe 00:12:02.049 --> 00:12:04.590 group. But by using that word half, she ended 00:12:04.590 --> 00:12:07.289 up compressing her two baskets into one. That's 00:12:07.289 --> 00:12:09.090 the perfect way to put it. The people she described 00:12:09.090 --> 00:12:11.889 in the second basket, the ones who were desperate 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:14.750 for change. They didn't hear the empathy. They 00:12:14.750 --> 00:12:16.490 just heard the insult directed at their neighbor 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:19.769 or maybe even at them. They heard deplorable 00:12:19.769 --> 00:12:22.309 and thought, well, I guess that's me then. And 00:12:22.309 --> 00:12:24.669 the part where she said, we need to understand 00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:28.830 and empathize, totally lost. It evaporated. Yeah. 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:31.370 Because nuance doesn't go viral, but insults 00:12:31.370 --> 00:12:33.950 do. That's the danger of communication in this 00:12:33.950 --> 00:12:36.710 era. She ended up amplifying the very polarization 00:12:36.710 --> 00:12:39.250 she was trying to condemn. It's the ultimate 00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:41.950 law of unintended consequences. You try to put 00:12:41.950 --> 00:12:44.110 a label on your opponent to weaken them, and 00:12:44.110 --> 00:12:46.730 you end up giving them a team jersey. And a battle 00:12:46.730 --> 00:12:48.830 cry. I mean, think about it. If you tell a group 00:12:48.830 --> 00:12:51.429 of people that they are irredeemable, you're 00:12:51.429 --> 00:12:53.570 not leaving them any room to negotiate. You're 00:12:53.570 --> 00:12:55.570 telling them they have no place in your America. 00:12:56.169 --> 00:12:59.389 So what choice do they have but to fight to make 00:12:59.389 --> 00:13:01.830 sure your America never comes to be? So looking 00:13:01.830 --> 00:13:04.070 back on all this, what's the big takeaway? Why 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:06.330 does the story still matter so much? Because 00:13:06.330 --> 00:13:09.029 it's a profound lesson in the power of language 00:13:09.029 --> 00:13:12.309 to create reality, not just describe it. When 00:13:12.309 --> 00:13:15.490 you paint huge swaths of the country with one 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:19.190 brush, you create tribes. You solidify identities. 00:13:19.649 --> 00:13:22.070 From one night at a fundraiser in New York to 00:13:22.070 --> 00:13:25.740 a global symbol of the populist revolt. basket 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:28.200 of deplorables was so much more than a gaffe. 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:30.620 It's a masterclass in how political identity 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:33.539 is forged in the 21st century, and it taught 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:37.100 every campaign a lesson. You can insult the candidate, 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.740 you can insult their policies, but you can never... 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:42.909 ever insult the voters themselves. It is a lot 00:13:42.909 --> 00:13:44.649 to think about. We've gone from the specific 00:13:44.649 --> 00:13:47.789 words in a speech to a Broadway themed rally 00:13:47.789 --> 00:13:50.950 in Miami to the entire sociology of an election. 00:13:51.149 --> 00:13:53.110 It's quite a journey. It certainly is. And I 00:13:53.110 --> 00:13:54.509 think that's a good place to leave it for this 00:13:54.509 --> 00:13:56.549 deep dive. We've seen how a political strategy 00:13:56.549 --> 00:13:58.870 of division can backfire and become a tool for 00:13:58.870 --> 00:14:01.149 unity and empowerment for the other side. And 00:14:01.149 --> 00:14:03.370 how a single phrase can echo through our politics 00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:06.809 for years and years. Absolutely. So the question 00:14:06.809 --> 00:14:09.460 we want to leave you with is this. We think of 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.259 political labels as weapons to push people out, 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:14.940 to ostracize them. But as we saw here, sometimes 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:16.639 that weapon gets caught and thrown right back. 00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:19.139 So ask yourself, in our world today, when does 00:14:19.139 --> 00:14:21.259 a label intended to shame a group actually become 00:14:21.259 --> 00:14:23.200 the very thing that gives them their power? Thanks 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:24.299 for listening and stay curious.