Donald Trump Makes it Impossible to Have Thoughtful Debates About the Real Issues Facing the Nation
Reporters must get tired of asking Donald Trump questions about research, science, academic studies, statistics and all the other fact-based stuff that he simply rejects out of hand when they conflict with his policies. His "national emergency" news conference yesterday was typical. When reporters questioned his reasoning on the "crisis" at the border by citing statistics by his own administration that undermined his argument, he cut them off or alluded to other unspecified information that he claims supports his case. Donald Trump will never allow facts to get in the way of policies that please his base.
The "wall" debate is just one example of how Trump is undermining our ability to have thoughtful, substantive, fact-based debates about issues in America. He has approached climate change, immigration reform, El Paso crime statistics, Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, health care, Russian interference in the 2016 election, vaccinations, tax policy, hurricane deaths in Puerto Rico, N. Korea's nuclear program, and even the work of his own intelligence officials in exactly the same careless manner. We are living in an age in which our President's opinions trump science, data and peer reviewed research.
Tom Nichols captured it perfectly last month in the Atlantic:
Atlantic: "Over the past two years, Trump and his enablers have accomplished something even more dangerous than trying to run a government on gut feeling and conspiracy theories. They have, by attacking sources of authoritative knowledge beyond the president himself, inoculated a huge swath of the American public against ever being informed about anything, providing millions of Americans with a resistance to learning that will long outlive his administration."
You simply can't have rational policy debates if you reject objective knowledge. All that remains is opinions and power politics and that's a disastrous way to run a nation.
The March for Science
By: Don Lam & Curated Content
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