Charles Blow writes a regular column for the New York Times. In this one, he excoriates Donald Trump’s serial lies, which never end.
He is not only a liar, he traffics in conspiracy theories.
His “retraction” of the Obama birther claim came after five years of cultivating a following of rabid Obama-haters.
He did not apologize for alleging that Obama was not born in the United States. Instead, he claimed falsely that Hillary Clinton had started the rumor and he was putting it to rest.
This world-class liar had the chutzpah to expect praise for acknowledging that Obama was born in Hawaii, not Kenya.
The President produced his birth certificate years ago, and Trump said it was a fraud. Newspapers in Hawaii reported his birth, but the Trump forces insisted that the conspiracy to hide Obama’s foreign birth began on the day he was born.
This man is a menace. He can’t tell truth from lies. If he can, then he simply loves lying, and he wants the rest of us to follow him down the rabbit-hole into TrumpWorld where facts are irrelevant and Trump is always right, no matter how much he lies.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Trump is a serial liar who obviously loves to lie and get away with it.
Lloyd, who do you suggest teachers vote for?
Trump is really dangerous.
How can we explain his supporters? It is inconceivable to me that Trump can be this high in the polls. We need to teach students about the dangers of propaganda and how to think critically. Too many people are too easily led. I know some people have made the comparison to rise of fascism during the Depression. The parallels are very sobering.
I suspect retired teachers it’s our (bloomer’s)teacher’s who have failed. Not the current crop, Their success is yet to be determined.
I always go back to Dylan on this one.
“A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than blacks, don’t complain
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin” they explain
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.”
Geography has little to do with it today. The underlying theme is the same. Make America great again when all those ” others” knew their place.
Appreciate being blamed for yet one more thing, Joel. We current teachers are NOT responsible for this creep. I can only speak for myself, but I do everything in my power to teach my students about propaganda, as well as the rise of fascism.
Threatened
First bloomers was supposed to be boomers.
Guess my satire is lacking. I meant to convey that many of those voting for Trump were educated in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s like myself. So if education failed that failure was long ago.
But if there is a failure that failure is of curriculum not individual teachers. The emphasis on education as a tool to make students “career ready” will only exacerbate this situation. Heaven forbid we should view education as a tool to create an educated citizenry in a democracy, capable of being trained by their employers for careers.
Much better to have worker drones. Especially at a time of outrageous income inequality not seen since the age of the Robber Barron’s.
“It is inconceivable to me that Trump can be this high in the polls.”
Really, RT, it shouldn’t be that inconceivable since polls are about the most unreliable source of information that is available in current days. Polls are pseudo-news events that allow the media to sell their “goods”. Charles Seife, in Ch 4 “Poll Cats” of his book “Proofiness”, explains how the results of polls have been consistently wrong and the reasons for that “wrongness”:
“Polls are like a drug. The news media can’t swear off of them for even a few hours. . . . Yet, when it comes to polling, all journalistic objectivity and skepticism seem to go out the window. The pull of the poll is so great, the addiction to pseudoevents is so desperate, that the media forsake fact.”
Close races sell, blowouts don’t. Who has the vested interest in seeing a close race?
Retired Teacher… I agree with you… “the parallels are sobering” … I would say the parallels are to despotism, however. When I walk down the street I find myself looking at people and wondering, “Are you a potential Trump voter… ?” I am perplexed but I do understand that these times have gotten really bad and filled with business driven propaganda fueled by media complicity because media is run by big business. People are hurting and people are desperate to believe that politicians actually care first and foremost about those they represent. These factors are ripe for breeding despotism when times are bad and there is a lack of democracy. The average American no longer has a voice in who is put up for nomination because of laws giving big business/big money aka “super pac money-driven” policy. One percent of the population has total control. Trump operates like “Papa Doc” or sadly a host of so many other crazed leaders in history who never explained the “how” behind “policy” statements but did say, “believe me… I know best ” and then acted in total self interest creating complete destruction but hovering above it all with great wealth and power! Trump makes a lot of declarative statements with no iota of support … “I will make this country great… I will create jobs… I will keep immigrants out believe me”… I will fix health care, believe me … the Mexicans will pay for a wall… believe me… A nation of people are supposed to believe BLINDLY and sadly out of desperation – they seem to be “believing” these days.
None of this commentary is a comment in support of Clinton. But Trump is clearly AN EXTREME DANGER to our nation – an extreme danger to the very foundations of democracy in America. That someone would put a check next to Trump’s name at the ballot box is frightening. That a presidential candidate could actually state that the other candidate is responsible for creating a great lie that he actually started (and be allowed to get away with this) is revealing of just how bad things are. Really? Clinton started the Obama birther movement?? This is more than audacious… it is worthy of a mental health check-up. And this newest Trump LIE is allowed to just BE????? A presidential candidate should be able to be IMPEACHED from the election process when his/her mental state is a danger to the nation. I think this is the case. Let the Republicans choose another nominee with mental stability at the very least!
A menace ad nauseum
but
the scary thing is not Trump how many Americans believe in him. Reminiscent to me of Germany and the rise of Hitler. People grasp at straws without grasping the significance of what they are doing. The propaganda machine is alive and well.
The media created a monster and now, realizing what they have done report SOME of the things which should have been reported LONG ago.
Gordon
You say “the scary thing is not Trump how many Americans believe in him.” What scares me more ls “why Hillary Clinton has trouble with this loser. Why did the Democrat party put all their faith in her?
Good question. The Democrats erred in picking Clinton. In an anti-establishment year, they picked a very establishment candidate. Then compounded the problem with an odd, establishment VP candidate. Add to that Clintons untrustworthiness and cold demeanor, and I almost think Democrats are trying to lose.
Clinton needs to inspire Bernie supporters rather than marginalize and dismiss them. Voter turnout in the 18-34 group will be crucial. Then, the Democrats need to clearly state strategies and policy aimed at middle class, retirees, college students, teachers, labor in order to steal voters from Trump.
It may be too late, but I still believe many Trump supporters do not like the guy. They are fearful, hurting, lost jobs, and watch as good jobs go to H1bs or overseas rather than Americans. Clinton needs to give them a reason to vote for her.
Vale Math
Very true , the dynamics of the primary that chose Hillary are almost as revolting as the show on the other side of the isle. The sadder part is that Clinton needed that energized youth vote to win this election .
Sanders was correct when he stated “poor people don’t vote” . They don’t vote in the numbers that would place their interests in a significant place on the political agenda.
Who would have predicted that we should have to rally the minority vote to come out for Clinton in the numbers they came out for Obama ! The sad truth is, that the tightening race is a reflection of the minority vote returning to normal voting patterns and the youth vote going elsewhere or staying home, 2010 and 2014 all over again.
Thursday I addressed a group of 150 Trade Union retirees explaining to them that when they fill in that scantron for Trump they could be kissing their pensions goodbye . There should never be a question as to which party represents the interests of working Americans, the fact that there is a question, is why Trump is where he is at in the polls.
Yes. I watched PBS and a retired teacher reiterated her support for Trump. Pension retirees need only look to Detroit or the Teamsters to wake up and realize, under a Republican government, all retirement is at risk. Detroit government workers (mostly lower end in benefits) took a drastic cut to shift resources to “rejuvenation” and Teamsters are finding they have to get jobs at 70 because their benefits are cut.
Since retirees are not working, they are prime candidates for cutting to shift resources towards actively employed or investment. Under Republicans, contracts (social or otherwise) mean little.
Contracts were sacrosanct for Bankers bonuses and prosecutions for fraud non existent. I would love to see the BS that justice responds to Warren with.
What is the Democrat Party Raj?
There is not one incorporated political party in the US that calls itself or has as its legal name the Democrat Party.
Only the Democratic Party nominated Clinton and has faith in her, along with many others who aren’t members of the Democratic Party.
Is it so hard to get it correct, or is it the same juvenile name calling the Repubicans have been doing for years?
Teachers are not supposed to teach political beliefs or sway the way a family has raised their offspring to believe regarding religion or political propaganda. Our government and corporate powers take care of that via control of the media. So much for freedom of speech in the press. If you tell the truth you can lose your job or be labeled a whistle blower. So folks believe half truths and lies because now a days it is too difficult to know the difference.
I am really getting mightily fed up with people who say, “Well, Hillary lies, too.” Oh baloney on steroids. There’s no comparison, not even close to the duplicity and mendacity of Trump. This whole birther nonsense is so obviously false that it is nauseating. If you doubt Obama’s birth place, then you should doubt everyone’s birthplace, even your own. Obama supplied all kinds of documentation and still it was not good enough. You can’t beat stupid and delusional. That old saying is true: if you repeat a big lie often enough, it will gain traction and credibility amongst the credulous. Trump knocks down one big lie with another big lie. What does this man actually believe in? This is similar to the swift boating of John Kerry’s war record but much worse. I am not ashamed to admit that I am scared that this vicious demagogue may succeed.
Even worse is the fact that Trump has tried to incite violence against Clinton. Even a veiled threat is a threat none the less. There are too many unstable people in the world for him to get away with this. Is there no code of conduct for candidates? The first comment was about “second amendment people,” and the second one is about disarming her bodyguards because, as we know, Clinton wants to take away everyone’s guns just like Obama. There should at least be some form of censure for a candidate that crosses this type of line. https://thinkprogress.org/trump-assassination-joke-take-two-4415061a27f0#.ska7zmas
Maybe, since he coined “Crooked Hillary”, Trump should be called “Demented Donald”.
I do think there are mental health issues with Trump.
Demented, Destructive, Deplorable, Despicable, Dishonest…
But also vulgar, crude, ignorant, obnoxious.
Good monikers, all. When rational, respected Republicans like Robert Gates and Susan Collins are raising multiple red flags, Republican voters should listen.
I drove through rural Ohio this weekend. The browning cornfields and grazing cows share the farmland with many, many Trump signs. I do not understand it. Trump will not understand even remotely the issues in rural Ohio, nor care. I get it, these people are angry, fearful, and disillusioned. But Trump?
I know people in all areas of Ohio and they have been decent, honest, hard working. When did they change and support Trump’s hateful, narcissistic, destructive agenda? What happened?
At Otterbein college years ago, the exceptional theater department put on Cecil P. Taylor’s play “Good”. The play followed a well-meaning, liberal academic from classroom professor to Nazi supporter. The final scene was chilling as the professor’s wife slowly, non-chalantly dressed him in a black, SS uniform as the professor tries to justify his transformation and selling out his friend. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater. Even some gasps. I wonder what reaction that play would get today in Kasich’s former district.
Vale Math
It all changed when not one banker went to jail. Well not quite but almost. O was elected on “hope and change” . The American people knew they were getting the short end of the stick. Obstruction aside the last 8 years have reinforced it more. Their willingness to support an authoritarian demagogue another story with many deplorables and quite a few voters abandoned by our democratic friends. Including my congressman Steve Israel who all of a sudden can not reveal his position on TPP now that he is retiring . Probably to a cushy lobbing position. Of course he complained about having to fund raise while in office. I guess he will have many good references for his new career.
“There’s no comparison, not even close to the duplicity and mendacity of Trump.”
Sure there is, especially for those of us not blinded by fear, fear which infests both main parties and their minions.
“I am not ashamed to admit that I am scared that this vicious demagogue may succeed.”
I would be ashamed to admit that because I don’t let fear dominate my being.
Are you a white male?
It is a bit entitled to act unafraid when the arrows aren’t pointed at you.
Many Jews in Germany were told by their “friends” not to worry about the election of a demagogue. No doubt most of those “friends” – while they may have dismayed — didn’t see their families shipped off to the gas chambers.
Yes, a white male who growing up was one of the smallest kids in class. I didn’t let fact get in the way, I just learned to be the quickest and fastest so no one could catch me.
Yes, I am a white male who has studied and lived abroad and speaks a second language-Spanish.
Yes, I am a white male who understands being “the other” from those experiences abroad.
Yes, I am a white male who understands what happened in 1930s Germany, at least as much as one can from afar in time and space.
Yes, I am a white male who rails against the holocaust of the mind/being, soul if one is religious, of innocent children who are falsely mislabeled and discriminated against by the government (through public school malpractices) and who internalize those supposed academic pronunciations about their work.
Yes, I am a white male who has never been nor felt entitled to anything. What I have-and it ain’t much unless you consider a 30 year old mobile home with a pole barn on 12 acres and a 10 year old pickup to be a lot, it’s more than some, yes but far less than what many others have-and I’ve worked for what I have with the help of family and friends.
Yes, I am a white male and I have no clue what that has to do with the price of tea in China.
We all saw the crowd of Trump supporters at his birther announcement gave him rounds of applause in spite of the fact that had just told them and the world that what he had for years been claiming as true about Obama not being born in the U.S. wasn’t true, and then in the same breath he tell another lie that Hilary Clinton was responsible for the birther lie — and all of his worshipers instantly believed that he hadn’t really told the birther lie because he was just repeating what HRC had said. And we ask ourselves: How can reasonably intelligent people swallow such obvious lies? Study the phenomenon of cognitive assonance and cognitive dissonance: People believe what fits with their Weltanschaaung and reject as untrue that which doesn’t fit. Trump’s birther reversal announcement is a perfect example. Bottom Line: Anything — any lie — he says that fits with his worshipers’ belief system will be believed by them. He knows that about his followers, so he and his cronies in the media can lie and lie and lie and still be believed by those for whom such lies fit their cognitive needs. These needs are deeply rooted in their life experiences. One of the most fertile soils in which these roots grow deeply is insecurity: If they have grown up in insecure circumstances or have lost their jobs and haven’t been able to gain new employment that enables them to feel secure, if they feel threatened by workers and people of a different color or ethnicity, their need for security keeps them glued to anyone who promises them a more secure tomorrow. In their deeply-rooted cognitive state, their cognitive minds are impervious to truth and to facts that contradict their “savior”, which roll off their minds like water off a duck’s back. They are literally blindly loyal.
Another trait typical of many of the genre of voters who support Trump is the need for Cognitive Closure; that is, the need to have clear and final answers to problems. In today’s complex world, such answers don’t exist — but anyone who promises they can deliver clear and final answers garners an immediate following from those who have this need. Those who have the Cognitive Closure syndrome can’t deal with complexity and fluid change that are the nature of today’s issues, requiring constant review, constant reassessment, and constant adjusting of responses, which to the Cognitive Closure mind is “flip-flopping”. Modern brain research has shown that those who exhibit the Cognitive Closure behavior have a distinct pattern of neurological brain wiring which is associated with what are called “conservative” ideologies. In adults, this neurological wiring is highly resistant to being altered. (It’s also likely that persons who exhibit “progressive” ideological behavior have a distinct “progressive” pattern of brain wiring.) The result is that today we have two large groups of people who are physiologically incapable of changing their ideological perspective, and that is precisely what we see in today’s political arena where the two ideological camps are shouting at and hurling accusations at each other, but no one on either side is “changing their mind” — because that’s literally what’s needed: A physiological change in their brains’ neurological wiring…and that’s almost impossible.
Maybe the conservative Cognitive Closure group will ultimately prevail because they are literally “single-minded” as a cohesive group, while progressives tend to each have their own personal agenda priority of issues which are often at odds with the priorities of other progressives, thereby preventing progressives from becoming a single-minded cohesive political power. It’s like Will Rogers said: “I don’t belong to any organized political party — I’m a Democrat.”
The best hope that progressives have is that their opponents’ leader will attack a sufficient number of issues that are shared by all progressives so that, even though they aren’t united on agenda priorities, enough progressives are offended so that they vote against the opponents’ leader. Trump is doing a good job of offending a lot of progressives; even so, progressives who have the Bernie Sanders priorities seem to be unable to support the agenda priorities of Hillary Clinton, and if they don’t vote for her, Trump could be elected. Clinton needs to broaden her appeal to these Sanders voters, and merely giving lip service statements about the Sanders’ agenda is not enough. She must provide a detailed plan to his supporters of just how she is going to implement the Sanders agenda. And she’s fast running out of time in which to do that.
And make it believable. That is in Obama’s hands. One paragraph :
“:After consulting with Hillary Clinton I have decided to withdraw the TPP from consideration and allow the next administration to renegotiate the agreement.”
But they will instead sacrifice what remains of the middle class to the alter of Trump , in the pursuit of corporate campaign cash.
Like some many rheephorm arguments, it is not hard to find how one assertion handily eviscerates another.
So “Crooked Hillary” who is “unstable” and a “monster” and “brainwashed” and “rotten” and “heartless” was supposedly responsible (at least obliquely) for, er, giving birth to the birther movement, needing only the very briefest of moments to allegedly suggest that the president was not born in the United States—
Giving inspiration both natural and divine to Donald Trump to carry on his birther crusade for exhausting year after exhausting year, and spend mountains of moola, and put his own credibility on the line with many many declarations giving credence to the birther blabber.
In other words, Donald Trump takes his marching orders from Hillary Clinton.
That is, if you are to believe the time line according to Donald Trump.
With this type of “thinking” no wonder the Republican nominee is all in for corporate education reform.
Just sayin’…
😎
Like!
from 1984 (Orwell), Ch. 9:
“The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker’s hand….[S]uddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work! There was a riotous interlude while posters were ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot…. One minute more, and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from the crowd. The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed.
The thing that impressed Winston in looking back was that the speaker had switched from one line to the other actually in midsentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax.”
My point with this quotation: Trump embodies Orwellian Newspeak to the core.
Danielle,
I bet Trump never heard of Orwell or 1984.
Tony Schwartz, who wrote The Art of the Deal, said that he doubts Trump ever read a complete book.
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Are those all Orwell quotes?
Also, how can one be a “former” cheesehead? I thought “once a cheesehead always a cheesehead” as I’ve seen with my brother and his wife!
It seems clear (to me, at least) that the candidacy of Donald Trump was built on a number of interrelated factors, and none of them bode well for the maintenance democracy.
the long-term Republican lie that in a democratic republic – a government made up by representatives of the people – whenever difficulties arise, which they most assuredly do, government is not the “solution,” government is the “problem.” How does that play out in food safety inspections, or natural disasters, or serious workplace hazard, or blatant corporate and banking misconduct, or the spread of Ebola or the Zika virus?
the rise of social media (like Twitter) and the prevalence of right-wing websites and talk radio, not to mention Fox News. The importance of these cannot be overstated. To take but one example, the war in Iraq:
Academic research found that “…large minorities of Americans entertained some highly fanciful beliefs about the facts of the Iraqi war….48 percent of Americans believed that the United States had uncovered evidence demonstrating a close working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda…22 percent thought that we had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq…25 percent said that most people in other countries backed the U.S. war against Saddam Hussein. Sixty percent of all respondents entertained at least one of these bits of dubious knowledge; 8 percent believed all three.”
To be clear: Saddam was not tied to al Qaeda and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks; no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq; and most other countries did not support the invasion of Iraq.
Now here’s the interesting thing: when researchers looked into where people got their news information, Fox was the source of the most inaccurate beliefs with fully 80 percent of Fox viewers believing one of the three untruths cited above and almost half believing ALL three. But what about the “liberal” media? Of those who watched PBS and listened to NPR, only “23 percent adhered to one of these misperceptions, while a scant 4 percent entertained all three.”
If anything, things have only gotten worse since that research was done in 2003. After the Hillary pneumonia episode, the mainstream media continued to slobber over her “transparency” while Trump was simultaneously demonstrating that he was clueless about The Federal Reserve and interest and (again) calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas. The right-wingers were talking “Parkinson’s.
the Republican obstructionism in Congress that has helped to cause citizens to loathe their government. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, two of the most respected Congressional researchers in the country, put it this way:
“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”
Mann and Ornstein continued: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition…On financial stabilization and economic recovery, on deficits and debt, on climate change and health-care reform, Republicans have been the force behind the widening ideological gaps and the strategic use of partisanship.”
So, nothing gets done. And climate change is a “hoax.” And the Affordable Care Act was a “government takeover” of health care. And tax cuts for corporations and the rich “trickle down” and promote economic prosperity. And the United States was conceived on “Biblical” principles.
the extent to which American citizens have bought into conservative lies that we are
“overtaxed,” immigrants are dangerous, supply-side tax cuts generate revenues, and the “free market” is actually free.
However, according to the OECD, of the top 35 developed nations, only two (Chile and Mexico – have lower tax rates that the U.S..
Virtually all American citizens are related in some way to immigrants, and immigrants are a net positive to the American economy, with the National Academy of Sciences reporting that immigrants and their children pay significantly more in taxes that they receive in government benefits, and an Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy study finding that illegal immigrants contribute more than $12 billion to local and state coffers.
As to tax cuts, even Republican economists admit that they do not generate revenues, and the head of the Congressional Budget Office – appointed by Republicans – recently told Congress, “the evidence is that tax cuts do not pay for themselves…our models that we’re doing, our macroeconomic effects, show that.”
Anyone who thinks the “free market” – a construct of humans and not nature – is really “free” needs some serious time in therapy. In very recent years we’ve seen market-rigging scandals in the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) – which affects several hundred trillion dollars of assets and loans – and the ISDAfix, which is “a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.”
The emerging evidence is that the world’s biggest banks and trading companies gamed a “market” of some nearly $400 trillion of these trades, and not in favor of the public. Some of the very same players – both corporate and individual “investors” – are involved in both the LIBOR and ISDAfix scandals.
More recent disclosures reveal that traders and bankers have rigged the foreign exchange (FX) market, one that involves daily transactions of nearly $ 5 trillion, which is “the biggest in the financial system.” As one analyst noted, this is “the anchor of our entire economic system. Any rigging of the price mechanism leads to a misallocation of capital and is extremely costly to society.”
uninformed and misinformed voters and the failure of public education – from top union officials to school boards, superintendents, principals and teachers – to focus on democratic citizenship has helped to bring us where we are.
Various reports have documented our ignorance. Only about a third of Americans can name the three branches of government (nearly 75 percent can name the Three Stooges) and 60 percent don’t know which party controls the House and Senate. Only 19 percent trust government and 60 percent think “major reform” in government is needed; 75 percent of Republicans think this Nearly two-thirds of American think elected officials are selfish, and among those who are “angry” at government, two-thirds view Donald Trump favorably. Interestingly, the New York Times reported this morning that Trump has gotten nearly $1 billion in tax subsides form New York alone, and he refuse to release his tax records.
A Gallup poll in 2015 found that 45 percent of Americans approved of the job being done by the Supreme Court, but 50 percent disapproved. Most Americans cannot name a single member of the Supreme Court and only 1 percent can name all nine (through there are only eight at present). A decade-old Zogby survey found that nearly 80 percent of Americans could name two of the Seven Dwarfs but only 24 percent could name two members of the Supreme Court. How many citizens do you think know and understand the impact on the early republic – and the relevance today – of Court decisions in the landmark cases of Gibbons. v. Ogden or McCullough v. Maryland?
A democratic society is predicated and contingent on a citizenry that understands and is committed to democratic values. Pericles defined them more than two millennia ago: openness, popular sovereignty and majority rule, equality, justice, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare. In any democratic society, the people ARE the government. Aristotle noted that democracy (demos) is the populace, the common people. Thus if all citizens are part of self-rule, then they are “a part of the state, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole.” That is the essence of the social contract.
And yet we are focused on “college and careers.” And ACT and SAT scores, and Advanced Placement courses, even though there’s little research to support them. We are emphasizing the Common Core (the AFT and VEA have been pathetic on this, so to the National School Boards Association, and the national associations for superintendents, and elementary and secondary principals) and STEM, but not participatory democracy.
We can and should do much better. We should hold accountable those in whom we place responsibility and our trust.
But we also have to commit ourselves to what Aristotle called “the character of democracy,” because if we don’t, it’ll disappear completely.
sorry, the numbering of the factors – there are five – was lost in posting the comment….each of the five factors I identified begins with a small letter:
#1 is “the long-term Republican lie,”
#2 is “the rise of social media,”
#3 is “the Republican obstructionism in Congress,”
$4 is “the extent to which American citizens have bought into conservative lies ”
#5 is “uninformed and misinformed voters and the failure of public education… to focus on democratic citizenship”
Thanks for you astute analysis of why we are failing to create a better functioning democracy. I agree with you so now I feel like my head is about to explode. I also think a big contributor to our situation is income inequality and the unbridled power of corporations.
Retired,
I appreciate it. I re-edited the piece to correct typos and make it more readable. See below.
Trump is depressing.
He’s rude, he treats other people horribly, he boasts about never reading or learning anything and he lies constantly. Constantly. Every day.
Yet he has a fairly good chance (just odds) of being President.
How can they admire this person? If they met an ordinary person who had that set of qualities would they think “wow, what a great person!” ? Of course not.
He goes to that minister’s church as her guest and then attacks her after he leaves? Who behaves like this? You would dislike this person if you had to deal with them on a daily basis- anyone would. I can’t see he has ANY redeeming qualities, just as a person let alone President.
My youngest son admires President Obama. I can tell by the way he talks about him. Obviously I have huge problems with Obama’s education policies but I think it’s clear he’s a decent person. He consistently behaves like one would expect such a powerful person to behave. He is, broadly, admirable. I have no reservations about the fact that my son admires him. I think he’s a good role model for just about anyone, GENERALLY, in terms of how he treats other people, restraint, humility, hard work, etc.
How can people look at Donald Trump and think there’s ANY comparison? No matter your ideology one of these people is admirable and the other is not. Is that like “politically incorrect” to say?
It seems clear – to me, at least – that the candidacy of Donald Trump was built on a number of interrelated factors, and none of them bode well for the maintenance of democracy.
First, the long-term Republican lie that in a democratic republic – a government made up by representatives of the people – whenever difficulties arise, which they most assuredly do, government is not the “solution,” government is the “problem.” How does that play out in food safety inspections, or natural disasters, or serious workplace hazards, or blatant corporate and banking misconduct, or the spread of Ebola or the Zika virus?
Second, the rise of social media (like Twitter) and the prevalence of right-wing websites and talk radio, not to mention Fox News. The importance of these cannot be overstated. Take just one example, the war in Iraq:
Academic research found that “…large minorities of Americans entertained some highly fanciful beliefs about the facts of the Iraqi war….48 percent of Americans believed that the United States had uncovered evidence demonstrating a close working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda…22 percent thought that we had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq…25 percent said that most people in other countries backed the U.S. war against Saddam Hussein. Sixty percent of all respondents entertained at least one of these bits of dubious knowledge; 8 percent believed all three.”
To be clear: Saddam was not tied to al Qaeda and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks; no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq; and most other countries did not support the invasion of Iraq.
Now here’s the interesting thing: when researchers looked into where people got their news information, Fox was the source of the most inaccurate beliefs, with fully 80 percent of Fox viewers believing one of the three untruths cited above and almost half believing ALL three. But what about the “liberal” media? Of those who watched PBS and listened to NPR, only “23 percent adhered to one of these misperceptions, while a scant 4 percent entertained all three.”
If anything, things have only gotten worse since that research was done in 2003. After the Hillary pneumonia episode, the mainstream media continued to slobber over her “transparency” while Trump was simultaneously demonstrating that he was clueless about The Federal Reserve and interest rates, and (again) calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas. The right-wingers were talking “Parkinson’s.
Third, the Republican obstructionism in Congress that has helped to cause citizens to loathe their government. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, two of the most respected Congressional researchers in the country, put it this way:
“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”
Mann and Ornstein continued: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition…On financial stabilization and economic recovery, on deficits and debt, on climate change and health-care reform, Republicans have been the force behind the widening ideological gaps and the strategic use of partisanship.”
So, nothing gets done. And climate change is a “hoax.” And the Affordable Care Act was a “government takeover” of health care. And tax cuts for corporations and the rich “trickle down” and promote economic prosperity. And the United States was conceived on “Biblical” principles.
Fourth is the extent to which American citizens have bought into conservative lies that we are “overtaxed,” that immigrants are dangerous, that supply-side tax cuts generate revenues, and that the “free market” is actually free.
According to the OECD, of the top 35 developed nations, only two (Chile and Mexico – have lower tax rates than the United States.
Virtually all American citizens are related in some way to immigrants, and immigrants are a net positive to the American economy, with the National Academy of Sciences reporting that immigrants and their children pay significantly more in taxes than they receive in government benefits, and an Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy study finding that illegal immigrants contribute more than $12 billion to local and state coffers.
As to tax cuts, even Republican economists admit that they do not generate revenues, and the head of the Congressional Budget Office – appointed by Republicans – recently told Congress, “the evidence is that tax cuts do not pay for themselves…our models that we’re doing, our macroeconomic effects, show that.”
Anyone who thinks the “free market” – a construct of humans and not nature – is really “free” needs some serious time in therapy. In very recent years we’ve seen market-rigging scandals in the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) – which affects several hundred trillion dollars of assets and loans – and the ISDAfix, which is “a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.”
The emerging evidence is that the world’s biggest banks and trading companies gamed a “market” of some nearly $400 trillion of these trades, and not in favor of the public. Some of the very same players – both corporate and individual “investors” – are involved in both the LIBOR and ISDAfix scandals.
More recent disclosures reveal that traders and bankers have rigged the foreign exchange (FX) market, one that involves daily transactions of nearly $ 5 trillion, which is “the biggest in the financial system.” As one analyst noted, this is “the anchor of our entire economic system. Any rigging of the price mechanism leads to a misallocation of capital and is extremely costly to society.”
Lastly, the prevalence of uninformed and misinformed voters, and the failure of public education – from top union officials to school boards, superintendents, principals and teachers – to focus on democratic citizenship have helped to bring us where we are.
Various reports have documented our ignorance. Only about a third of Americans can name the three branches of government (nearly 75 percent can name the Three Stooges) and 60 percent don’t know which party controls the House and Senate. Only 19 percent trust government and 60 percent think “major reform” in government is needed; 75 percent of Republicans think this. Nearly two-thirds of Americans think elected officials are selfish, and among those who are “angry” at government, two-thirds view Donald Trump favorably. Interestingly, the New York Times reported this morning that Trump has gotten nearly $1 billion in tax subsides from New York alone, and he refuses steadfastly to release his tax records.
A Gallup poll in 2015 found that 45 percent of Americans approved of the job being done by the Supreme Court, but fully 50 percent disapproved. Most Americans cannot name a single member of the Supreme Court and only 1 percent can name all nine (through there are only eight at present). A decade-old Zogby survey found that nearly 80 percent of Americans could name two of the Seven Dwarfs but only 24 percent could name two members of the Supreme Court. How many citizens do you think know and understand the impact on the early republic – and the relevance today – of Court decisions in the landmark cases of Gibbons. v. Ogden or McCullough v. Maryland?
In 1819 (McCullough v. Maryland) the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the U.S. government was “a Government of the people. In form and in substance, it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.” Thus one of the purposes of government is to promote the general welfare.
Chief Justice Marshall wrote this about the necessary and proper clause:
“the clause is placed among the powers of Congress, not among the limitations on those powers.” And he added this: “Its terms purport to enlarge, not to diminish, the powers vested in the Government. It purports to be an additional power, not a restriction.”
In Gibbons v Ogden (1824) Chief Justice Marshall wrote this about the Congressional commerce power: “This power, like all others vested in Congress, is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution.”
These were broad interpretations, very early on, coming from members of the Founders, and both established the the precedent that the commerce power of the federal government is incredibly extensive and should be used for the betterment of society. Obviously, there have been conservative justices who believed differently, from
Melville Fuller, who said anti-trust legislation did not apply to manufacturing monopolies and who voted for racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), to the late Antonin Scalia, who turned his back on the living Constitution legacy of the Founders to invoke his ideologically-driven concept of constitutional “originalism.”
A democratic society is predicated and contingent on a citizenry that understands and is committed to democratic values. Pericles defined them more than two millennia ago: openness, popular sovereignty and majority rule, equality, justice, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare. In any democratic society, the people ARE the government. Aristotle noted that democracy (demos) is the populace, the common people. Thus if all citizens are part of self-rule, then they are “a part of the state, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole.” That is the essence of the social contract.
And yet in public education we are focused on “college and careers.” And ACT and SAT scores, and Advanced Placement courses, even though there’s little research to support them. We emphasize the Common Core (the AFT and NEA have been pathetic on this, so too the National School Boards Association, and the national associations for superintendents, and elementary and secondary principals) and STEM, but not participatory democracy.
We can and should do much better. We should hold accountable those in whom we place responsibility and our trust.
But we also have to commit ourselves to what Aristotle called “the character of democracy,” because if we don’t, it’ll disappear completely.