On September 9th, 2016, Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the LGBT for Hillary Gala in New York City in which she referred to ‘half’ of Donald Trump’s supporters as a ‘basket of deplorables’ who espouse ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic [and] Islamophobic’ sentiments. Although Clinton had prefaced her comments by acknowledging that she was about to make an overgeneralization, the backlash to her comments was swift, with Trump charging that her comments showed her true ‘contempt for everyday Americans’. Clinton apologized for her remarks, but doubled down in depicting Trump’s campaign as one based in ‘bigotry and racist rhetoric.’ Was there any truth to Hillary Clinton’s depiction of Trump supporters? To what extent can American voters for various candidates in the 2016 election be distinguished from each other on the basis of their attitudes? Can supporters of the various presidential candidates be differentiated by measures related to some of the key themes in the 2016 election, such as authoritarianism, sexism, Islamophobia, racism, and attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals?
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