Final Word from Thursday, December 28, 2017

Hillary Clinton apologized in "What Happened" for saying in Sept. 2016 that, "You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables." She shouldn't have generalized, she said, and added that she regretted handing Trump a political gift. There wasn't any exact Czech equivalent to the "basket of deplorables" in the Oct. elections, but some of the terms used to describe Trump-like Czech voters were "racist," "xenophobic," "anti-European" and "illiberal." Yet parties that were labeled "populist" or "protest" - ANO, Pirates, SPD - won a narrow election majority (51.07%). When Communist voters are added, the number rises to 58.83%. When ODS is added - many of its voters have "deplorable" views on the euro and refugee quotas - it rises to 70.15%. These voters, like it or not, are the People of the Year. Anyone who denies their concerns about ingrained Czech and EU policies will be handing the "populist" and "protest" parties one political gift after another. [Czech Republic European Union KSČM book.