Your editorial, “Forever Hold Your Peace,” did a good job capturing the disillusionment felt by many young people.  You describe the pervasive dissatisfaction among young voters that America can’t do better than these two candidates.  And your descriptions of Trump are spot-on.  But a number of times you seem to suggest that there’s some equivalence between Clinton and Trump.  You point out that they have both led “divisive and controversial” campaigns, for instance.  I do not believe that these two campaigns and candidates are even slightly comparable.  Donald Trump truly is, as the Washington Post put it, a “clear and present danger” to this country.  Those who have doubts about this should read the Post’s editorial with that title, along with the writing of columnists such as Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, and George Will, the last two GOP presidential candidates, and conservative publications like the National Review, in which nearly two dozen leading conservative thinkers contributed essays to an issue called “Against Trump.”  Dorothy Rabinowitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning member of the conservative Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote of Hillary Clinton, “Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.”

Given that Trump’s election would be a permanent stain on our nation, I thought that your editorial would have more of a sense of urgency.  Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate, to be sure, but in the end, there is no denying that she is intelligent, experienced, well-informed, and articulate.   I am sure that all of you have seen and heard from Trump what I have seen and heard, so I do not have to spend time selecting from among the enormous collection of things said and done by Trump (any one of which should be disqualifying) to demonstrate that he is shallow, narcissistic, petty, vindictive, thin-skinned, impulsive, xenophobic, misogynistic, Islamophobic, arrogant, science-denying, and culpably ignorant about our nation and the world.  Those who are disturbed by Hillary Clinton’s dishonesty should spend a moment looking at Politifact’s analysis of the comparative rates of lying among candidates.  Trump’s is by far the highest (60.1% false claims), and Clinton’s one of the lowest (13.3% false claims).

Much has been written about the perceived apathy of young potential voters today.  My plea to Hamline students is – Prove the critics wrong. Vote.  An NPR report pointed out that “millennials continue to have the lowest voter turnout of any age group.  Only about 46% voted in the last presidential election, compared to 72% for the Silent Generation (ages 71+).”  You should aspire to raise that voting rate dramatically.  So please, mobilize others, using all of your social media powers, and get them to vote.  And remember – Minnesota has same-day voter registration (be grateful that you live in a state that actually wants to maximize voter turnout!).

The first order of business is to defeat Trump and all that he stands for, as a Trump presidency would likely cause profound harm to our country and the world.

The next order of business is to ask the big questions – How did this happen?  How did one of the two major American political parties put a person like Trump so close to the presidency?  How do we make sure that it doesn’t happen again?  These are complex questions that would require multilayered answers (this would make for a great seminar – “Trump: How?”).  But here I want to point out just one thing.  One of the groups most likely to vote for Trump is “non-college-educated white men.”  In a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, Trump leads Clinton among members of this group by a whopping 59%.  Plenty can be said about race and gender here, but it is also worth thinking carefully about the “non-college-educated” part.  I do not want to imply that one must go to college to be a well-informed, thoughtful person, nor do I believe that everyone who goes to college is wise and knowledgeable.  And I do not deny that there are socioeconomic issues involved.  I simply want to make the following claim, which I believe deeply – If you get a strong liberal arts education, and you fully engage with your courses, professors, and texts, you will gain skills that are not only useful for career preparation, but are also key elements of good citizenship.  As you become more skilled in critical thinking, research, and information literacy, you will be less vulnerable to manipulation by demagogues.  You will learn the methods and importance of science, which means that you will recognize politically motivated, dangerous science-denial when you see it.  You will reflect on the significance of diversity, social justice and what it means to be part of a community based on mutual respect (it is both jarring and telling that Trump said,  “For the most part, you can’t respect people because most people aren’t worthy of respect”).  The nation’s founders were highly educated, reflective, articulate people (I cannot imagine the rate of grave-spinning set off by Trump’s candidacy).  An educated citizenry is essential for a healthy democracy.  Thomas Jefferson wrote, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

To conclude, I want to point out that these are my views and not those of Hamline University.  However, I believe that Trump’s vision is contrary to Hamline’s stated values and vision.  Hamline values an “ethic of social justice” and “inclusive leadership,” whereas Trump exemplifies divisiveness and bigotry (his statements about barring Muslims from entering the country go against the deepest values of who we are as a nation). Trump’s loathsome attitude and behavior toward women is completely contrary to the values of a University that takes pride in the fact that our first two graduates were women.

The Republican Party must do some serious soul-searching.  Trump didn’t come out of nowhere.  He is a crystallization of some of the ugliest impulses of the GOP taken to their logical extreme.  But we all must do some soul-searching.  While we do that, we should be grateful that we are part of a tradition of education that contributes to good citizenship and nurtures the values necessary for America to flourish as a multicultural democracy that, despite everything, has a chance to realize its promise.

Sincerely,
Mark Berkson