Donald Trump and The New Literacy

What a political week this has been!  This has been a rough primary season after seventeen candidates ran and the last candidate is now standing.  Not based on money or influence in the current hierarchy, not based on prior ‘political’ experience, and not based on what the media wants, or who the media employs, or who owns the media.  The handpicked candidates were knocked off early, leaving three renegades.

All I want to say about Senator Ted Cruz is that if he had campaigned like he quit the primary run by speaking to the hearts and minds of the people, he might still be in the race.  Governor Kasich’s  withdrawal speech brought tears to my eyes.   I have great respect for both for a valiant run and their courage.

This election was pure populism in action and the thrilling spectacle of the voters actually making up their own minds unfettered by the traditional methods of control used by the media and the DNC and the RNC, which is to limit the actual information available to the voters.  And of course, whomever poured the most money into the traditional advertising and the hiring of party ‘consultants’, and the hosting of ‘high level’ events for party honchos, and all the other hangers on who profit from campaigns feared a change of emphasis due to Donald Trump’s success without their assistance. 

I am a lifelong educator and I know that people are being taught to read and the new impetus to learn to read is no longer books and newspapers:  the new impetus to learn to read, follow directions and discern patterns is coming from electronics and computers and in many cases is already surpassing that of their elders as they gleefully experiment with the games and devices.  This wave of new literacy is surfed by those of us in the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs generation who have remained intensely interested in any new technology.  The Techie Trekkie Generation, maybe. 

This newly educated population is not necessarily academically credentialed, but are self-educated through electronic media, plus whatever they learned in school and on the street and from their family and peer group.  These people watch TV and they watch such as Game of Thrones and Justified and other happier shows as well, but these are not naïve rubes tuning in for the first time when they hear about stacked elections or they find out that the delegates elected in their state don’t match the will of the people as expressed in an election, and that ethics are secondary to ambition.  We knows it when we sees it. 

As Mr. Trump pointed out, the policies of the last sixteen years have resulted in relentless wars and it’s time for a real change, not a mere changing of the guard on old policies that have resulted in failure, no matter who is collecting the profit from it.  It is time for a new foreign policy focus, one that ensures the interests of the United States of America.