Thursday, October 20, 2016

Trump's Popularity Shows We Need Better Education in the US



The 2016 presidential campaign is nearing its end and for weeks, if not months, we've see how Trump can outright lie to his supporters. The many egregious moments (famous and too many to list) have cost him the election, but the number of moments were far above what would have cost another candidate the election. There is something that he is able to tap into that makes his fans mentally overlook his many flaws. Perhaps it is star power or just the pure chutzpah, but the fact that he can directly lie to his fans is disturbing.

Hillary says she wants to raise taxes on those making over $250,000.
Trump says to everyone: Hillary is going to raise your taxes.
And that's the most innocent example.

Bragging about sexual assault in general and then claiming that it never actually really happened (even if one incident has witnesses), is amazing.

You can say that that is a matter of opinion, but then he claims that he never said that climate change is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese. Never mind that he tweeted about it more than once.

His most ardent supporters (there are fortunately fewer and fewer of them) are happy to ignore these shortcomings. No amount of facts seems to make any difference. His woeful ignorance on foreign policy and on basic things like how nuclear weapons work is just painful. His fans seem to have no filters. No inquisitive distance at all.

His presence in the election, and his popularity is casting a glaring light on the lack of education and educational opportunities in this country. Post-secondary education needs to be free, and the quality of the current free secondary education needs to be improved. Anyone with a high school diploma (even younger) should be able to discern that something is very wrong with Trump's many claims.