Trump "operates in a substance-free zone of narcissistic fantasy."

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COMMENTS: 
*  Yep! Everything "old" is new again! Universal truths travel well over both time and distance, and you can't fix stupid,,,
*  We are a country that values "celebrities" over substance. We are getting what we deserve with Trump. He has exposed the flaws in our educational system, in our thinking, and in our values. He didn't create these flaws--he just tore back the wrapper and showed us who we are.
*  Fearing the unreasoned and unchecked appetites of the masses, Plato was as big an opponent of democracy as the intellectual world has ever produced. He viewed it as the last stop before the worst possible form of government, tyranny. Given the adulation Trump generates, I find myself wondering whether Plato might have gotten it right.
*  ...  I would maintain it is difficult to know what Donald Trump knows because he hasn't shown much knowledge and erudition. He reminds me of a carnival barker of yesteryear...PT Barnum? A sucker born every minute? He is an effective showman, I suppose. He may have talent, I surmise. As president of my country? He is horrifying.
*  The GOP road map was designed to help Jeb! win the prize. The didn't anticipate he would be such a dud nor that the electorate actually believed the nonsense they hear and see 24/7/365 on RWNJ radio and TV. Trump's proven competence is listening to the RWNJ memes and repeating them verbatim as through they are real. GOP audiences are primed to respond to the memes without applying critical thinking.
*   If the Elites in the Republican party had of not spent decades dumbing down their own GOP base and cutting education funding at the federal and state levels just to win elections for profit and greed, then there would be no Trump running for president on the GOP platform.  But, the GOP establishment dumbed down the base of the GOP to the point that Trump speaks to them in the same way that they speak to one another. Not only has the GOP being dumbing down their base, but many of your party leaders made many of those in your base think and believe that having a education was bad.  I am orry, Kathleen, but the leaders of GOP (past and current) are the ones who are at fault for dumbing down the base of the GOP.  Not only has the GOP been dumbing down their own base of voters, but they also colluded with Corporate America to ship their manufacturing jobs overseas.  Poorly educated Americans did not need a college education to work in manufacturing. The GOP Elites dumbed them down and shipped their manufacturing jobs overseas.  Bottom line, the GOP Elites created this crisis.
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Plato would be horrified by Trump’s rise
By Kathleen Parker, April 26, 2016

When it comes to rhetoric, Plato was right and Aristotle — not so much.

Distilled, Aristotle thought rhetoric good for democracy, though his definition of “by the people” was closer to our Founding Fathers’ intent of only certain people than to today’s more-the-merrier model. Given this assumption of a narrow, educated, self-governing populace, Aristotle likely envisioned that those practicing rhetoric would be guided by accepted rules of argument and engagement, emphasizing ethos (trust and credibility), pathos (appropriate use of emotion) and logos (logical argument and facts).

Plato, who was Aristotle’s mentor, thought otherwise — that rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, in the wrong hands was dangerous and likely to be abused to appeal to people’s base motives. He foresaw the unethical, dishonest uses that a skilled but immoral speaker could put his persuasive powers to, with credulous people eager to believe or buy whatever he was selling.

Which brings us unavoidably to Donald Trump, as if you hadn’t guessed.

We at least owe Trump thanks for bringing these two ancient philosophers out of history’s woodwork and back into the conversation. Trump also has inspired reconsideration of rhetoric’s rightful place in the classroom, where it was once considered an essential component of “a gentleman’s” education.

One such classroom can be found at the University of Virginia School of Law, where I was recently a guest lecturer. What better time to be reviewing rhetoric’s ancient rules and modern applications than during a presidential election that features one of the most blazing examples of unsavory rhetoric since Clark Stanley boiled a live rattlesnake at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago?

It turned out that “Stanley’s Snake Oil” had nary a drop of reptile adipose but was instead a mixture of beef fat, red pepper and turpentine. Even if it had contained l’huile de serpent, the liniment would have been ineffective as a curative. Rattlesnake oil contains only a third of the vital acid found in the widely popular Chinese snake oil of the time, which was made from water snakes. Thought you’d like to know.

So, the question for today’s class: Is Trump the huckster that Plato predicted would someday organize an angry mob into a proud army of anti-intellectual patriots inoculated to facts and reason?

Why, yes! But don’t take my word for it. Consider instead the appraisal of U-Va. law professor Robert Sayler, who has co-written a book with Molly Bishop Shadel, “Tongue-Tied America,” as a template for would-be high school rhetoric teachers. Using Aristotle’s aforementioned framework, Sayler divined the Greek philosopher’s answer to the question: “Trump’s buffoonery and unhinged chatter reduces to utter catastrophe.”

Let us count the ways.

First, in the matter of ethos, or earning the trust of one’s audience, Trump is as big a prevaricator as he accuses “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz of being. PolitiFact gave Trump its 2015 award for the most fibs. In distrust do us part.

Second is pathos, which Sayler defines as the sparing appeal to emotions. For The Donald, another “F.” Says Sayler: “Trump routinely rages, flush-faced, anger-spewing, sputtering, especially when challenged.” He has spoken of people leaving his rallies “on stretchers” or deserving a “punch . . . in the face,” while promising to pay assailants’ legal fees.

Third and last, Trump also flunks logos. Channeling Aristotle, Sayler opines that Trump’s logic, common sense and factual argumentation are “a minefield of chaos.” Rather than advance positive proposals, Trump spends most of his time railing against what he opposes: the Geneva Conventions, NATO, world trade, the United Nations, the president, “experts” and, of course, “the establishment.”

Otherwise, he operates in a substance-free zone of narcissistic fantasy. “They love me,” he insists. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

Sayler describes several of Trump’s other anti-logos traits, with amusing categories such as “The Bonkers,” which covers the mogul’s remark about Hillary Clinton’s “disgusting” bathroom break. Under “The Frightening,” Sayler points to Trump’s wish to be “unpredictable,” including firing off possible nuclear attacks. Trump, concludes the professor, is a world-class demagogue and blunderbuss.

It’s little wonder that the “Stop Trump” movement has gained traction, leading recently to an obstructionist partnership between Cruz and John Kasich. It is also highly unlikely that Trump supporters give a hoot. Plato, Aristotle and Sayler are all elitists, aren’t they? But what should be plain to everyone else is that the study of rhetoric is essential to an educated populace, lest rising generations fall prey to future demagogues and the perilous fates that await the unwitting.
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