In a recent column about Donald Trump, I suggested that a coarsening of our educational system has resulted in a rash of citizens falling for blatant fear-baiting rhetoric bereft of both facts and common sense. Obviously, this tactic has been around forever — but there’s a definite increase in those who spout doomsday rhetoric and those who believe it.
Real education’s taking a back seat. Where is skepticism, or even normal curiosity? Hordes of speakers have parroted the phrase “job-killing Obamacare” for years, not in the least slowed down by our country’s unemployment numbers steadily falling to 5 percent (Romney promised to get down to 6 percent, and his audiences cheered wildly). The fact that jobs don’t pay as much as they used to is another subject — automation, outsourcing, or the collapse of unions — unconnected to the Affordable Care Act.
It’s not just Trump, though right now, with the help of the media, he’s making the most noise. Now that he’s been “winning, winning,” as Cokey Roberts observed, “he’s not so funny anymore.” But Senator Ted Cruz is less funny, and more scary. With his “carpet bombing till the sands glow” threats, he sounds more like North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un wiggling his nuclear trigger finger than someone who claims to have “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” This, too, brings enormous applause, so my thought is, Do they understand what he’s saying? And if so, Would they really want him for president?
In a recent letter to CL’s editor-in-chief David Warner, a reader named John attacked me for some “anti-Trump” remarks I’d written (though I was quoting Republican criticisms). John’s clearest sentence went as follows: “The reason this country is in such decline is because of all the left wing teachers in this country are [sic] indoctrinating the youth into your wacko ideology which has been proven time and time again to be a complete failure.”
Well, no details are given, but he seems to be talking about the wacko ideology that brought us Social Security, Medicare, health care, fair labor standards (including the banning of child labor), civil rights law, gay rights decisions, and climate change awareness. There are other laws I’d guess he wouldn’t like, but it’s hard to say, because all he tells us is that the “ideology” is something that’s been proved “time and time again” to be a total bust.
Is he talking about Germany? Norway? France? We’re clearly doing better than they are these days, thanks to President Obama’s “ideologies,” though they remain charming countries to visit. It’s true that most — by no means all — college teachers are on the left, but that’s natural: They read more. They speak more languages. They believe in climate change. It’s hard to figure where John’s overstated and overheated vitriol comes from.
Maybe he’s been bullied by thugs with accents. He thinks Obama’s a Muslim and Clinton’s a Nazi, but I’d gently urge him to check Wikipedia or Politifact or just get out a bit more. I don’t know if John has lost his wallet, his job or his mind. If any of these dire things are true, and this isn’t just a snit, trust me, John, both President Obama and I wish you better luck.
It sounds to me that he’s picked up the frumious tone of Senator Cruz, our own Bandersnatch (via Lewis Carroll), who’s coldly racing Trump to scoop up the “angry vote.” In my article I implied the acceptance of crazy ideas and general name-calling — even Marco Rubio has joined in now — might be attributable to faulty information pooling in our schools and living rooms. Bad manners breed in stagnant water like zika-bearing mosquitoes.
Uh-oh. I’ve just been bitten, so I’ll join John and the others, and end with a quote from one of my favorite authors:
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 2, 2016.