The more we know about Donald Trump, the less we like him. I don't mean his servile acolytes in Congress—they're a lost cause—I mean the average voters...the ones who, in four years, forgot what a mess he left in 2000 and willingly took him back four years later.
Trump relies on that amnesia but also ignorance, and if that sounds harsh, I am merely echoing Trump's own expressed philosophy; otherwise, why would he be willing to uproot the education department, browbeat college administrators, and cut off aid for learning programs wherever he finds them? It isn't money: an educated populace is Trump's enemy.
People who grasp how democracy should function also understand how it can collapse. The others, whose news source is social media and whose guru is the latest conspiracy nut, believe that the democracy they live within is permanent and invulnerable. It is neither.
Which brings me to RFK Jr. He has mellowed of late in his uncompromising view of the health care system, although—if I may add—his worthy attempt to reduce kids' intake of processed foods very much resembles Michelle Obama's attempts sixteen years ago, which the Republicans called overreach. Kennedy, in light of the measles epidemic in Texas, has admitted that vaccines do prevent the virus and that the choice should be up to the parents.
That's great, but that's the problem. I don't blame Kennedy for an ignorant population; hundreds of thousands of insufficiently educated or deliberately misled Americans would be better served getting information from a healthcare professional with formal training in epidemiology and viral diseases—someone to say, "If you endanger the life of your children by entrusting their health to the Internet, be prepared for the worst."
RFK Jr. would not be a threat to an educated population who can weigh his risks and rewards and balance his suggestions with those of physicians, but that is not the kind of world Donald Trump envisions. In it the only facts emanate from Truth Social, masks and vaccines are contentious. They are hobgoblins of the woke—oh yes, and maybe surgeons and dental hygienists who don't want to infect their patients or themselves.
And so, back in Florida, among the drives, chips, and putts that make for a busy presidency, Trump continues to belittle education by withholding or removing funding, hamstring medical research by cutting programs, and most recently, make life more difficult for veterans by eviscerating the Veterans Affairs Department. This is how democracy dies...in full view of people too unaware to realize it's happening. You can blame Kennedy, Hegseth, Linda McMahon, the lot, but they're only doing Trump's bidding. He knows that if he can keep his followers distrustful of learning, science, and especially history, he can cruise unabated through Project 2025.
Sure, Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, and Churchill drove fascism to its knees, but they don't come close to Trump: he's abolishing everything—democracy will just be collateral damage.
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