Mr. Pence and a Word

Trump running mate and current Indiana Governor Mike Pence is having trouble with words, which is nothing new. But his recent stumble with regards to David Duke is easy to have avoided. CNN's Wolf Blitzer tried to get Pence to say Duke is deplorable and he wouldn't. If it was because he knew it was the incorrect word to use it would be refreshing but it's not. The Trump Campaign is using the word deplorable to attack Clinton over her recent comments, so it's a political maneuver, not an understanding of definitions.

I just recently posted a commentary concerning the word deplorable and what it actually means. Language is made up of words and words have a meaning. Unfortunately at a certain age most adults seem to just never consult a dictionary again in their lifetimes. Even those with a solid formal education do this. None of us know the exact meaning of every word in the English language, I certainly don't and I love words. My dictionaries are always at my fingertips and I never hesitate to look up words I've never encountered or am unsure about, this is how we learn. I'm not young and my education continues daily.

Deplorable is not the correct word to describe David Duke, he is despicable. Despicable means that which is to be despised; contemptible; vile. Some consider such details irrelevant, that's obvious, but it's not. We are losing the treasure of language through our short handing in texting and bad examples set by those who have a loud voice in our society. What should be contemplative thought is being reduced to something not even at the level of slang.

Look at the way the Trump Campaign is approaching Hillary Clinton's use of the "basket of deplorables". His surrogates can't even get on the same page. Some are saying Clinton insulted half of America and others that she insulted 100 million Americans, that's less than a third of Americans to be factual. To be even more factual about it, Donald Trump has never ran in a general election so those numbers are not yet known. The only election he's participated in is a primary where he won approximately 14 million votes. Half of that, which was Clinton's description is 7 million supporters. So 7 million are in that deplorable category and I've already addressed the actual meaning of the word.

On the issue of David Duke, it is Trump himself who caused that problem long ago. When he was first confronted with the name and his opinion of Duke supporting him, he said he didn't know who Duke was, which is a lie. There is video evidence from a 1999 interview on Meet the Press where Trump demonstrated he knew exactly who Duke was and he condemned him. Fast forward to his current Presidential run and suddenly he had never heard of him. A stance which clearly telegraphed that he was willing to accept support from people like David Duke. Trump took a longtime to finally say he disavowed Duke but not strenuously, so this lingering issue is Trump's fault, yet Pence keeps saying he doesn't understand why Duke's name keeps coming up.

Let's have a round of applause for the dictionary and let's hope someday it becomes popular again.