Democrats should make an issue of Trump's gobsmacking ignorance

[babylonsister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/04/democrats-should-make-an-issue-trumps-gob-smacking-ignorance/?fbclid=IwAR3lvKryO6jcZ3WorAZ5hLmnUYE-XId9zeE9iuvSK2zaOHFlHMJ27xyLJwA&utm_campaign=wp_opinions&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Democrats should make an issue of Trump’s gobsmacking ignorance

By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
Feb. 3, 2020 at 10:50 a.m. EST

snip//

These are not the sort of self-serving lies meant to boost himself (e.g. falsely claiming that he passed the Veterans Choice program, that economic growth is the biggest ever, that his tax cut was the largest ever). The geographic, economic, historical and other high- school-subject errors are matters of mind-numbing ignorance and worse, a disinclination to attain basic knowledge of the world.

We know how this came to be. He’s not much for reading. He becomes impatient when experts try to explain things to him. And he spends his day watching Fox News, a fount of scare-mongering about immigrants and climate change denial. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) Add in his aversion to anything he reads in mainstream media outlets, and you have a president who knows less about the world than the average college freshman.

I raise this not merely to deride him or to damn his enablers, who think they can manipulate an empty-headed president, or to shame his base that revels in anti-intellectualism. I raise this to ask Democrats: Why aren’t you making a much bigger deal of this?

A willfully ignorant president, convinced of his own infallibility and willing to believe just about anything to assuage his ego (Kim Jong Un likes me! We are making money off the trade war!), is unfit and dangerous. Most critically, he is willing to buy whatever Russian President Vladimir Putin whispers in his ear, particularly if it reassures Trump that he did not win with the help of Russian interference in 2016. Democrats, rather than (or in addition to) doling out insults about his appearance, vanity and efforts to inflate his wealth (as former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg does), should start making the case that Trump is just too gullible and ignorant to be president.

Trump, who calls himself a “very stable genius” with a “good brain” and “all the best words,” will not take this line of attack well, to put it mildly. The key group of college-educated voters will be reminded why they have such contempt for him and long for a president who does not embarrass them.

Democrats should not be insulting Trump’s voters, obviously. Rather, they can explain that he does not care enough to know anything about their lives (or even where their cities are). He plays them for fools with his made-up economic statistics, reckless foreign policy and indifference to our men and women in the military (e.g. suggesting brain injuries are inconsequential). Don’t they deserve a president who knows things?

[Rider3]

1. What do you think has been done for the past 3 years?

Seriously, this is beyond dumb. Democrats have done everything they could at every stage of this debacle. However, Mitch McConnell is blocking more than any wall on the border. McConnell is the reason we cannot get anything done. Don't put this on the Democrats. We tried and tried and were ignored, laughed at, threatened, and finally told that although the case had been proven against the president, that the Republicans won't do their job and that Trump will be staying. So why don't you pose this question to the Republicans: How the hell can you support a man who cannot tell the truth, steals from charities, cheats on his wives, etc., etc.?

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Problem is that endears him to the mouthbreathers...

they are just as incurious and ignorant. That is just a sign that Dear Leader is just like them and loves them.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. 'I don't know noner that shit'

'He's my kinda guy. Hyuk hyuk.'

[berksdem]

3. he is a bloated nit-wit

and his base loves his verbal diarrhea... Dems calling out the obvious does nothing for our platform and will not change any of his supporters.

[COLGATE4]

5. Many (many) moons ago

I did my undergraduate degree in a small college town in mid-state New York, where "town" and "gown" frequently met and talked with each other over a few brews. That's where I first heard the endearing expression Deporables had for college-edumanacated folks: "You're just a bunch of educated fools".
Seems like not much has changed.

[scarletwoman]

6. A great comment posted to that article:

He's the first US president who speaks less than one language.

[Talitha]

8. You just made my day - THANKS!!!

[panader0]

9. This country only exists because George Washington

was able to capture the airports.

[Vinca]

10. Agreed. Just got to the chapter in "Stable Genius" where military people and others try to

teach Trump world basics with slide shows and pictures. He lasted for a couple of hours before calling the generals babies and losers. I bet the moron couldn't point to his New Jersey golf course on a map.