For the last few days, a copy-and-paste post has been circulating on social media, asking those horrified by last week’s election results what it is we’re afraid of. Many of us have expressed fear, along with disbelief and revulsion, and it’s fair to ask why we’re afraid. I was directly confronted by a family member who requested a list of the horrible and tragic events I fear may befall our country in the next 6 to 12 months; again, it’s a fair question. So I’ve given it some thought, and here’s my list.
Because I could easily write a whole book right now on the things that make me angry and/or afraid, I’ll start with these four: Trump’s ignorance, his immaturity, his mental instability, and his association with people who represent the darker side of humanity and of America’s history. (By the time I finished writing this article, it was about 5000 words long, so I’ve divided it into three parts. I’ll post parts two and three by the end of the week.)
Our president-elect, and I physically shiver every time I read or write those words, is the most ignorant person ever elected to the presidency of our country. There’s a difference between being ignorant and being dumb; I think he’s both, but I can’t document his dumbness since he has never released academic transcripts (or tax returns, etc.), so I’ll stick to ignorance, for which there is an abundance of documentation.
Anyone applying for a job is expected to have the knowledge and skill required to perform that job; this is so basic, I can’t believe it needs to be mentioned. Hiring an “outsider” is a nice way of saying we hired someone who doesn’t have a clue what the hell he’s doing. He doesn’t know how the system works, he doesn’t know the governing charters (in this case, our Constitution), and he doesn’t know what the job consists of. The higher the position the more knowledge is required. There is no higher position than leader of the free world, so we should have been looking for a friggin’ genius; instead, we hired the guy standing on the corner holding a cardboard sign.
Not only is he ignorant of the job but he’s demonstrated a stubborn unwillingness to learn. He lacks intellectual curiosity. He lacks the social consciousness that would cause most of us to strive at least to give the appearance of competence. Look at the photos of Trump’s first meeting with President Obama after the election. He looks scared, as well he should be. He’s in so far over his head that he can’t even fake a look of confidence and competence.
In the absence of knowledge, he can rely only on populist appeal and demagoguery, and so far that’s working well for him among his followers. Matthew MacWilliams wrote in Politico Magazine on January 17, 2016:
If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated? You’d be wrong.
In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism.
That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow.
(http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533)
There you have it. The people who elected Donald Trump don’t care that he knows nothing about governing. They wanted an authoritarian—an autocrat—and they got one. Some say the comparisons to Hitler are exaggerated; some say they’re spot on. By the time we know who’s right, it will be too late.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
During their private White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Mr. Trump seemed surprised by the scope, said people familiar with the meeting. Trump aides were described by those people as unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama’s term.
After meeting with Mr. Trump, the only person to be elected president without having held a government or military position, Mr. Obama realized the Republican needs more guidance. He plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do, people familiar with the matter said.
Does it seem unreasonable to say that the Presidency of the United States is NO place for on-the-job training? My fellow citizens have elected the first president in our history with zero government or military experience, and they can’t understand why I and millions of others are afraid of what he’ll do. At a time in the world’s history when we face the greatest global threats and conflicts, combined with the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry that’s ever existed, we have our most unprepared leader. That’s scary as hell!
My next fear is that Trump is the most immature person ever to stand on a presidential campaign platform or debate stage or to be welcomed into the White House as its next resident, which is to say he is temperamentally unfit for the position to which he’s been elected. If your 5-year-old were inaugurated president, given highly classified information including the nuclear codes, given power to make decisions affecting your safety and welfare and that of everyone else in the world, would you be scared?
When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate accuse his opponent of everything she said about him, a weird version of Pee Wee Herman’s comic line “I know you are but what am I?” When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate attack everyone who criticized him, including the SNL actor who impersonated him? When was the last time a presidential candidate had to have his Twitter privileges revoked the week before the election because he has no impulse control? When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate remind himself in a campaign speech to remain calm, be cool? Never. Never!
It was frightening enough to have a candidate bent on wreaking revenge on everyone who threatened his delicate ego, even more frightening now to think how he’ll respond when he’s president and has all the power of that office at his fingertips. For the first time in our nation’s history, we witnessed a presidential candidate threaten to use his presidential power to have his opponent investigated and possibly incarcerated. That alone should scare any sensible person. His Twitter wars, his petty insults, and his mean-spirited attacks on every demographic in our country do not evidence the maturity and gravitas necessary to be president.
Vocabulary is more than a subject we study as part of our elementary-school English classes, it’s an indicator of our ability to process complex ideas. Children’s ideas are generally not too complex, and their vocabularies reflect the simplicity of their lives and scope of understanding. That’s normal and healthy for children but not for adults and especially not for an adult who thinks he should be president. Jack Shafer, in an August 13, 2015, Politico article, rated Trump’s vocabulary at a third-grade level. (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-talks-like-a-third-grader-121340)
Some of his go-to words are “great,” “terrific,” “loser,” “disaster,” “very,” “disgusting,” “unfair,” and “ashamed.” Humans learn words as we need them to communicate our thoughts. Toddlers have a relatively simple world, and the things they want to communicate are basic biological needs: they’re hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, need to use the restroom. As they begin making observations and processing the world around them rather than just their own needs, they have to learn more words to express those more complex ideas.
Trump’s former ghost-writer for The Art of the Deal claims, “He has the smallest vocabulary of any person who has ever run for any kind of office, much less president . . .” Schwartz also says,
“It’s a 200-word vocabulary, so as soon he gets beyond that, you know that he’s reading someone else’s words,” Schwartz said. He theorized that Trump probably doesn’t familiarize himself with prepared remarks before delivering them because of his “incredibly short attention span.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-vocabulary_us_580d458de4b0a03911ed69b6)
Admittedly, I don’t know how Mr. Schwartz arrived at that figure; but having listened to Trump speak as many times as I could stomach doing so, I think the estimate is pretty accurate. For perspective, child development experts estimate that a 2 ½-year-old should know about 300 words.
Lest someone think I’m being petty by spending so much time on something as seemingly insignificant as a small vocabulary, I believe a person’s words reveal a great deal about the person. They reveal the depth and breadth of what the person has read and studied; reading and study build one’s word bank as they increase one’s understanding of the world–a necessary qualification for a head of state–and it’s safe to assume that someone so verbally bankrupt has read and studied very little and understands very little about the world. Understanding of language, in my opinion, also reflects a person’s ability to process complex ideas as well as the person’s interest in ideas. We learn words as we need them; those who remain at the toddler level, whose worlds consist only of their own needs, have little use for more sophisticated words.
To be continued.