I wouldn’t extend that judgement to all people planning to vote Trump, though they have all persuaded themselves to overlook egregious racism. But Matthews makes very plain he is rather talking about his core support from the primary, reflected in the headline here about “Trump’s base”, rather than people like your coworker.
All the data I have ever seen on the subject seems to agree that racial concerns have been a driving factor for them, and most of the objections seem to simply amount to not wanting to admit it. Right up to now, where Matthews argued it’s more charitable to listen to what people are saying than dismiss them as “dupes voting for the wrong candidate because they’re too dumb to Google his tax plan”, and you characterized that as him fishing to apply a “load of scornful contempt”.
I agree with his main point that realizing what things are is an important part of dealing with them. It seems like it’s much more important to many people to find reasons racist concerns can’t possibly be that widespread, polls and other evidence notwithstanding. But then, we already had that argument back in March.
