Oh Yeah, just wait for it: 1/3 Americans or a just little more are college graduated, meaning 2/3 are not. What does it mean when 2/3 of a population are non college graduated folks?
It means they do not know what science is. Much less do they know about facts as the main driven good decisions making. These people have not achieved high critical thinking skills, thus, they base their decisions on superficial explanations, on emotions or feelings. These people are easily manipulated, misled. That is exactly how in 2016, America elected Donald Trump as their president, and most likely he will be reelected in 2020.
Conservative Populist Republicans in America are the best storytellers for promoting alternative reality to non college graduated folks. For example, just watch Fox News from 7 to 11 PM weekdays and compare their behaviors to the 8 years of Obama presidency.
On November 21, 2019 (Yesterday), Ron Brownstein, a senior editor at “The Atlantic” published the most exhaustive article I have ever read: “Trump’s War on Expertise is only intensifying.”
In his article, Brownstein wrote: “As an array of career diplomatic and military officials offer damning testimony against Trump—a procession that will continue today with the appearance of former National Security Council adviser Fiona Hill—the GOP is reprising arguments from 20th-century conservative populists that portray experts as untrustworthy and contemptuous elites out to subvert the will of ordinary Americans. The challenge Trump faces is that such attacks may backfire among the growing number of Americans with advanced degrees, a population that is now much larger than when such conservative firebrands as Joseph McCarthy and George Wallace wielded similar arguments decades ago.”
This war has been going on since day one of humanity, and for the last 10 thousand years, it is still on. Although in certain civilizations, it doesn’t have significant power precisely because the trend shows a different path than the one conservative populist republicans still promote here in America, like it is the case in the third world countries.
Also Ron Brownstein added: “When, in 1952, McCarthy attacked the State Department’s “bright young men” with “the finest college education,” only about one in 14 American adults older than 25 held a college degree, according to census figures; by the time Wallace ran as a third-party candidate 16 years later, the number was nearly one in 10.Now more than one in three adults holds a college degree. That means more Americans than ever are earning their living at least partly with the knowledge and skills they have acquired through study, like the experts Trump ridicules and marginalizes.”
So, if Democrats want to take back the power (Congress, Senate and Executive) in 2020, they need to understand that data works against them: 1) 1/3 is not the majority, and still some within this group don’t automatically embrace Democrats views and 2) 2/3 will not use critical thinking skills (most of them of course) to make their decisions. Democrats did great in 2018, however 2020 is a different road. They must be able to create a coalition similar to Obama’s in 2008 according to Senator Harris during the presidential debate held on last Wednesday, november 20, 2019.
I witnessed the republicans defending Trump on the Mueller Report, Ukraine impeachment along with all other misbehavior/wrongdoings he has shown just being president and I keep asking myself the same questions many others are still asking like Ron Brownstein when he wrote “ Just how far will Republicans go for Trump?” in The Atlantic (November 14, 2019).
It could seem outrageous if I didn’t understand clearly what is going on. Republicans will go as far they can to support Trump as they went to show how much they hated Barack Obama. Trump is everything they really are. Trump is the manifestation of what Republicans deep inside are. Do you forget how far they wanted to go to destroy Obama? Since day one, their minority leader publicly said they will do everything they could to make the Obama presidency a failure and guess what? That is exactly what they did during 8 long years. They never supported Obama.
one has to be out of mind to even dream that conservative republicans will give up on Trump. When Trump said he could shoot someone in 5th Ave, New York and walk away, he knew what he was saying, republicans will save him, because he knows them, he knows their thinking, their belief systems. Donald Trump has been proven right so far.
Democrats nowadays as well as Democrats back then would give up on their president if Obama, Clinton had done just 25% of what Trump has done, or maybe, Republicans nowadays would if Democrats never had Obama as their president. In order to destroy Obama’s legacy, since they couldn’t fail his presidency, anything is acceptable, justifiable, even Trump the way he is.
During this impeachment inquiry, Republican Congressmen Nunez, Jordan, Castor and others showed no shame at all in defending the “defenseless”. The only reason why they did so, they know that 2/3 of Americans don’t have critical thinking skills. Even if they watch Dr. Hill reading her opening statement or answering republican questions powerfully, they are unable to understand the level of crime, abuse of power, Trump has committed as president. Even though they heard Ambassador Sondland said clearly “everyone was in the loup and it was no secret, Yes there was Quid Pro Quo”; even though they heard and saw Lt Col Vindman said to his dad: “Everything will be fine for telling the truth”. What we see as obvious because we use critical thinking skills to understand that everything Trump does connects him to Russia more than America…2/3 of Americans can’t see it.
And the game goes on… Trump will find a way to play the republican senators and convince them not to worry because he knows that about 2/3 of Americans not only forget easily but don’t have high critical thinking skills to understand what experts say, what science says. Guess what? These Republican senators will simply fall in Trump circle. He really knows how to manipulate them. History will remind us what Democrats stood for in 2020 and how these senators gave up on their oath to protect the constitution of America against all.
In the same article by Ron Brownstein, he reported that professor Donald F. Kettl, an expert in public management and public policy told him Trump is not supported by conservative intellectuals or the traditional republican party unlike the conservative populists.
The question Chairman Schiff asked yesterday about congress republicans back then versus now has a simple answer: Back then, Conservative intellectuals in any party will put evidence, facts before their own political benefits, but today, conservative populist republicans understand the game and they don’t care about moral, values, the rule of law…whenever they don’t personally or politically benefit from them. Conservative populist republicans are still using the fact that about 2/3 of Americans are scientifically illiterate in their favor.
It is about time that experts voices will be heard, understood and followed. It is about time that most 2/3 of Americans will be college graduated folks. It is about time that people will no longer base their decisions on superficial explanations, on alternative reality. This is true as well for Democrats that have exploited this level of ignorance, this level of scientific illiteracy to only benefit themselves. It is about time that either independents, republicans or democrats will behave according to facts in order to get the majority of people’s vote.
