DOG WHISTLE

Just when you think we’re done with the stupidity of the birthers, we’re all dragged back in.  If you haven’t seen the tape, a participant at a Donald Trump rally pointed out that we all have a big problem:  Muslims.  And of course, our president is one of them.  By the way, according to this guy, Muslims have training camps in which they are trained to do us harm.  As one of the pundits on TV pointed out, there are camps teaching Muslims to inflict harm; they’re known as US military training camps where they are volunteers who go through basic training.  Apparently, there are about 3,500 members of our armed forces who profess the Muslim religion.

In the last few postings, I have revisited the case I made early on in the history of this blog.  That is, that due to some quantifiable indicators, we can conclude that our civics instruction in this country needs some changing; we’re not doing a good enough job.  One such indicator was the level of political knowledge.  At the time, I used the incidence of birthers, the belief among a significant number of Americans who believed that President Obama is, one, a Muslim and, two, born in some foreign country (Nigeria being the most common location cited).  I also mentioned that there were – and probably still are – a significant number of people who believe President Bush had something to do with the 9/11 attack so that he could take us to war in Iraq.  In either instance, the level of delusion is worth considering.  When one ponders the amount of collusion such realities demand and the absence of reasonable evidence to support either contention, one is hard pressed to understand why anyone is so taken in by such outlandish claims.

Here is an aim for public education:  get the number of people so disposed to only an insignificant number – say under five percent of the population.  That would be refreshing.  Our media’s reaction to the incident at the Trump rally is to question why the candidate did not correct the misinformed supporter.  We are reminded how John McCain, under a similar situation, did just that.  But look at this from the Donald’s position:  how much support would he lose if he did correct the audience member?  After all, the bulk of his support is from this type of mentality, this type of misinformation.  Why don’t his numbers go down as he commits one gaffe after another?  Because his base is this population.  Trump has, I believe, garnered a whole lot of participation from people who usually are either not interested or so cynical they don’t bother.  In the main, this is his crowd.  Now, let me add that this is not his entire crowd; I am sure there are a lot of responsible people caught up with this unorthodox politician.  These people have responsible complaints, but there is the other portion. 

The other portion find Trump saying the right (no, at times, extreme right) things.  It is almost like a dog whistle going off.  It is that citizen who has been mis-served by our efforts in our civics classrooms.  And with that, I end this review of why we need to change civics and government instruction.