People are not garbage

It was wrong for comedian Tony Hinchcliffe to refer to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" at a Trump rally over the weekend.

The remark was rightly condemned by a number of people on both sides of US politics including at least two elected Republicans. US congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar said she was "disgusted" by the "racist comment". She said on X that it did not "reflect the GOP values", referring to the Republican Party, and noted thousands of Puerto Ricans served in the military.

US Senator Rick Scott said: "The joke bombed for a reason. It's not funny and it's not true." 

He added that "Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans".

Nor was it clever for the current US President Joe Biden to criticise Hinchcliffe in terms which when spoken aloud could very easily sound as if he was calling Trump supporters garbage.

What the Democrats are saying he said was, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter's - his - his demonisation of latinos is unconscionable and it's un-American."

Oh what a difference a silent apostrophe makes - written down like that, the apostrophe does indeed make it seems as though Biden was throwing the word "garbage" back at what came out of Tony Hinchcliffe's mouth, not at all Trump supporters. Biden himself has confirmed that it was Hinchcliffe's words which he meant to describe as garbage. 

However, it is entirely understandable that someone who saw and heard the clip and didn't realise the silent apostrophe before the "s" at the end of "supporter's" was meant to be there, would think the President was using the word to insult people who back the Republican candidate 

And so the divisions which are putting great strain on the civility and functioning of one of the world's greatest democracies are exacerbated.

However imperfect democracy is, it is vastly preferable to any other way to run a country, and we must not take it for granted. Political leaders of right and left alike have a duty to pick their words carefully.

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