A certain tendency has emerged among the liberal commentariat following the election of Donald Trump: a total identification of the president-elect with those who voted for him.

Jamelle Bouie gives it a pithy summary in a recent Slate article called “There’s No Such Thing as a Good Trump Voter,” his most explicit articulation of a position he has alluded to consistently. “All the solicitude, outrage, and moral telepathy being deployed in defense of Trump supporters — who voted for a racist who promised racist outcomes — is perverse, bordering on abhorrent,” he writes.

It’s redolent of a statement Hillary Clinton made on the campaign trail. Half of Trump’s supporters, she said, fit into a “basket of deplorables.” When those supporters emerged from their basket in greater numbers than her own on Election Day — at least where it counted — it became clear that calling them “deplorable” wasn’t an effective means of winning their votes. But you know what they say about hindsight.