Behind Trump's success

 Sam Smith – Bad as Donald Trump is, he didn’t come out of nowhere. His major support is a strong indictor of how American values and practices have changed, allowing someone like him to rise to the top. Here are a few of the contributing factors

Lack of civics education: As Rebecca Winthrop wrote for Brookings in 2020:

The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education examined the status of civic education and found that while reading and math scores have improved in recent years, there has not been the commensurate increase in eighth grade civics knowledge. While 42 states and the District of Columbia require at least one course related to civics, few states prioritize the range of strategies, such as service learning which is only included in the standards for 11 states, that is required for an effective civic education experience. The study also found that high school social studies teachers are some of the least supported teachers in schools and report teaching larger numbers of students and taking on more non-teaching responsibilities like coaching school sports than other teachers. Student experience reinforces this view that civic learning is not a central concern of schools. Seventy percent of 12th graders say they have never written a letter to give an opinion or solve a problem and 30 percent say they have never taken part in a debate—all important parts of a quality civic learning.

Failure of media: Our media have increasingly concentrated on the standards and behavior of the powerful. Examining changes in our culture is not high on its list. Further, today’s media place little value in providing accurate information when someone like Trump lies or misstates. This should be in the very next sentence but rarely is.

The rise of corporate values: With much help from the media, corporate values now are given much more importance than, say, community or religious values. This has been aided by a decline in religious affiliation, as reported in 2022 by Christianity Today:

Currently, 64 percent of people say they are Christian, but nearly a third of those raised Christian eventually switch to “none” or “nothing in particular,” while only about 20 percent of those raised without religion become Christian. If that ratio of switching continues at a steady pace, then in roughly half a century, only about 46 percent of Americans will identify as Christian.  If the rate of switching continues to accelerate, as it has since the 1990s, the percent calling themselves Christians will drop to 35.

There is a stunning lack of places, institutions and communities that guide us away from the likes of Donald Trump towards more civil values. And the fact that we don’t talk about it, makes it much worse.