If we don’t want to accept a “basketful of deplorables” than perhaps we should look at the underlying problems and see if there is truth or not there and if you don’t want to be in that basket – check your assumptions and change your behavior.

If you hire a young man and young woman with the same experience and at the same time and you pay the young woman less and then fire them both for comparing their salaries then you are in the basket. Since it happens in our country then we have people in that basket. If we won’t talk about it and if we won’t fix it we own that basket.

If a black child playing in a park with a toy gun is shot and killed by the police with no repercussions we have a problem. If the same happens to a black man shopping in Walmart with an item they sell we have a basket. If it happens again and again to unarmed black men and women without repercussion we have people in that basket. If we won’t talk about it and we won’t fix it we own that basket.

If a 98 year old black woman shows up to vote and is disallowed because she doesn’t have the right identification we have a basket. If white lawmakers purposefully make laws to prevent black and brown people from voting we have people in that basket. If we assume that that 98 year old woman is somehow illegitimate because she doesn’t have “documents” then we own that basket. That the Republican Party, purposefully, and with foresight, are making it harder for women and men like that to vote means that they own that basket.

If you are a person who believes that the President was not born in this country. If you ever questioned that. If you questioned the President’s citizenship. If you call him un-American because of the color of his skin. If you claim his religion is other than he says it is. If you would judge him badly even if it were different than you should ask yourself if you belong in that basket. That those questions were ever asked about our President means we own that basket. That Donald Trump, a major candidate for Presidency, asked our President for his papers, that those questions were not shut down by every member of the Republican Party means that they own that basket. That the media continued to give voice to those questions means they own that basket also.

If you believe that your religion allows you to judge someone else, to tell them that their love is less valid than your own than you belong in that basket. If you believe that someone should not be allowed to use the bathroom or do a job because of their sexual preference or their identity than you own that basket.

If you think that an oil company or a company building a pipeline should override the last of the promises that we made to a people whose land we stole than you belong in that basket. If  you think that using dogs against people and horses because they are protecting sacred sites is anything other than a crime than you belong in a basket full of deplorables.

If you think that the Emancipation Proclamation was wrong then you definitely belong in a basket full of deplorables. That we have people in this country that still believe that means that we need to have a conversation because we own that basket.

Yes, we need to have a national conversation. Yes, I am glad that Hillary Clinton called it out. Yes, we need to say that there are racists in our country. Yes, we need to say that there are misogynists. Yes, we need to acknowledge it and yes we need to change. The charge against “political correctness” – calling people out for what they about other people and far more importantly how they treat other people is a good thing. We need to treat everyone as equal. Lifting someone else up does not mean tearing yourself down. Giving people equality does not mean you are losing something. We need to give every person in this world dignity. We don’t have to have a basket full of deplorables. We can be better than that but until we are willing to talk about it we have a problem and it is right for people, especially our next President to acknowledge that.