2016 March 12^th

Last night saw some pushback against Donald Trump’s belligerence. Perhaps Newton’s third law has social implications as well as its applications in physics and we are seeing an “equal and opposite reaction” by protesters. It’s hardly equal so far but it is clearly growing and it is irritating Donald Trump.

The protesters last night at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle campus, (UIC), caused Trump to cancel his rally there. There have been a few members of some minority groups at Trump rallies and some have simply been asked to leave. Why? Well because they were members of minority groups. Some of them have raised protest signs and that’s enough for Trump to ban all of them. Remember, this candidate keeps reporters segregated, fenced into their own area where they must stay for the duration of his performance. Keeping reporters penned up like cattle lets Trump gesture at them and taunt them with verbal abuse, a shtick much loved by his supporters.

In spite of the large percentage of black citizens in southern states there have been few protests by them at Trump rallies. This isn’t surprising because most of Trump’s venom has been directed at Latinos and Muslims. On Chicago’s south side there are a varied group of young people with many minorities. Both their age and their minority status make them very unwilling to accept Trump’s views on racial purity. His tardiness in rejecting support from David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader, solidifies their view that Trump, as well as many of his followers, are racist. Trump’s accolade from Anne Coulter who weeps at the thought of an America “more swarthy” than it is now also supports this view.

Listening to interviews of Trump supporters who obviously know little or nothing about how American government works suggests that we must spend far more on our educational system. In the original constitution each state chose electors and these electors chose the President. Citizens had no direct vote in the matter. Maybe the founders” original ideas about choosing a President were not a bad thing. Winston Churchill said, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”