Donald Trump doesn’t read. While the GOP nominee for president admitted he gets most of his news from “the shows,” meaning the Sunday morning talk shows, Trump doesn’t read about the news or the world the way other presidents or candidates for president have…. “Presidents have different ways of preparing to make decisions. Some read deeply, some prefer to review short memos that condense difficult issues into bite-size summaries, ideally with checkboxes at the bottom of the page. But Trump, poised to become the first major-party presidential nominee since Dwight Eisenhower who had not previously held elected office, appears to have an unusually light appetite for reading,” the Washington Post writes. Trump admitted that he does not need to learn what is happening in the world or read a broad spectrum of news because he always makes the right decisions “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.”
I don’t know about you, but I tend to feel better when those in positions of authority and/or trust actually know something about the issues they address. In a complex, ever-changing world, one need not be a Rhodes Scholar or a Ph.D., but it’s not unrealistic to hope for, even expect, a leader to have at least a minimum working knowledge of what’s happening in the world.
The idea that someone innately trusts their decision-making to be correct even “with very little knowledge” because they have “common sense” seems a frightening prospect. To most rational people, “knowledge” isn’t a burden. It’s not something that clouds their judgment. It doesn’t impact or impede their ability to make sound, well-considered decisions. In fact, most people not hostage to their arrogance and self-ascribed brilliance understand that in the real world knowledge consistently beats ignorance.
A leader doesn’t need to read scholarly journals or scan the New Yorker from cover to cover each week…but there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. The idea that a Presidential candidate can with no hint of shame claim he can make sound decisions “with very little knowledge” is a frightening prospect. I don’t want an ignorant, ill-informed buffoon of a President who acts and thinks like a member of the Know Nothing Party. I don’t want a President who reacts based on what he calls “common sense,” but mostly conforms to his preconceived notions and prejudices. “Common sense” is rarely common, and even less likely to be sensible.
A President need not have an advanced degree to successfully lead America into the future. Then again, having a Constitutional scholar and professor of Constitutional law in the White House for the past eight years hasn’t worked out too badly.
There is NEVER a circumstance in which stupid and/or ill-informed beats smart, capable, and prepared. Smart people understand their limitations and work on filling in gaps in their knowledge base. Stupid people plow ahead with their eyes on the prize and nary a thought for how to best solve a problem. Reaction never trumps sober, informed reflection…unless you’re Donald Trump and you’re too intellectually stunted and lacking in self-awareness to recognize that you are, in fact, stupid.
Then again, stupid people vote for political candidates they can relate to. Greetings from our new idiocracy, eh?