2016 Jan 18^th

Today I happened upon Donald Trump bloviating from the badly misnamed “Liberty University.” Trump was supposedly giving a speech honoring Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) on MLK day.

Liberty University, you may remember, was founded by Jerry Falwell and now is governed by his son, Jerry Falwell Jr., Jerry Jr. was immediately appointed President of Liberty University on his father’s death. The senior Falwell would not be amused to find his school honoring MLK day for Falwell Sr. was all about segregation. So called Christian Schools in the south existed to thwart integration. They were private schools and so could admit whom they pleased and it didn’t please them to admit people of color. Finally the federal government seeing this as a segregation dodge changed the tax status of these schools and the dodge no longer worked.

The school determined, back in 2009, that its students could no longer have a Democratic (or indeed even a Democrat) Club on campus as such a club’s values conflicted with those of the college. Liberty University values conformity very highly. From Liberty University’s point of view this is surely the politically correct position although I can’t imagine Donald Trump criticizing it. If any other university had removed their Republican Club the academic freedom people would be outraged; when Liberty University takes a parallel action there is little comment because such outrageous action by them is not surprising.

Jerry Jr. made the news recently when with one hand in his pocket he dared terrorists to attack his university. He suggested that all eligible students, and I presume faculty as well, get concealed carry permits and thus armed, these Christians would not be soft targets. He did not discuss how this belligerent posture might conflict with Christian values. What could he say?

Trump today had a captive audience; Liberty University students are not at liberty to stay away from these convocations. You can compel a college student’s attendance; you cannot compel his/her attention. Students can clearly let everyone know that they have no interest in a speaker’s message they just open a newspaper when the speaker begins and then appear to read it. My guess is that such a performance would be dangerous for any student at Liberty. I listened to Trump only briefly, most of what he says he has said before. He has talked once more about building a wall but Trump himself has never built anything. He has hired builders and these builders are responsible for the constructions for which trump takes credit. His wall, properly constructed, would require enormous amounts of concrete and rebar and cost billions. That Mexico would pay for it is a pipe dream. Then Trump claims we are giving Iran one and a half billion dollars which we can ill afford given our level of debt. He’s wrong; we aren’t giving Iran anything, it’s their money which we have impounded. Secretary Kerry says we are releasing just 55 billion and that release will be over time contingent on Iran’s behavior. Then Trump claims that the recent budget agreement which funds the government will send us another 2 billion into debt. Well, it might if the government had no income, but the government certainly does have income as our tax bills demonstrate. Once again, Trump says whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear. What’s truth got to do with it? Does Trump even know what it is?