Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to Bob Martin’s Sept. 17 Advocate-Messenger column condemning Secretary Clinton for describing half of Donald Trump’s followers as “deplorable.” How many people was she talking about? Nationally, Trump polls just north of 40 percent. Half of that is 20 percent, or approximately one in five registered voters.

Just exactly what does deplorable mean anyhow? I looked it up in the dictionary and it says lamentable, wretched, deserving of disapproval, appalling and unacceptable.

In his latest attack on Secretary Clinton, Trump stated, “Her campaign was the source of the “birther claims” against President Obama. Politifact and other fact checking web sites have labeled that statement “a blatant lie.” So aren’t both the teller of the lie and those who choose to believe it in the face of overwhelming evidence lamentable and deserving of disapproval?

Trump hired the head of the Brietbart website Steve Bannon as his campaign manager. “Brietbart News” is a reich-wing web site that caters to the KKK and the collection of white supremacist groups collectively known as the Alt Right. Practically all of these groups as well as former Grand Dragon of the KKK David Duke support Donald Trump because “He believes a lot of the same things we believe”. Trump refuses to disavow their support and a very large proportion of his supporters are also sympathetic to their cause. Is this not appalling and unacceptable?

Mr. Trump has told some of the most outrageous lies imaginable. For example, he claimed that on Sept. 11, 2001, he saw “thousands of people cheering in New Jersey as the twin towers collapsed.” That was a total lie and fabrication. No such event occurred and there is no evidence of any such demonstration from any source including Brietbart News. But has Trump walked his trumped up story back and apologized? He has not! In certain gatherings of the faithful he continues to repeat the same lie. Is that not wretched, unacceptable, and deserving of disapproval? Yet his supporters are silent on this matter. Nor does Fox News or any of the right-wing hate radio shows call for a retraction.

I for one am not calling anybody, other than Donald Trump and David Duke, deplorable. But we may all want to examine our own core beliefs and if they fit the Merriam-Webster definition, perhaps we should order one of the T-shirts that Martin talked about.

Jim Porter

Danville