Source: CNN
When President Donald Trump revealed that he doesn’t know why the Civil War was fought, or at least figures it could have been averted by the kind of deal-making he supposedly excels at, it was revealing in ways beyond the ones easy to glean. The ignorance is, as usual, stunning for someone in the public spotlight. “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?” Trump asks rhetorically, which is like saying no one has bothered to study anatomy or physics.
Yet this sort of thing should no longer surprise us from this man. He doesn’t read and lacks curiosity, but that’s hardly rare among human beings. A college teacher friend of mine the other day noted that no one in his class could name who was president in the 1980s, nor, upon being told who it was, could they name his political party. People like this don’t mysteriously develop an interest in civics after college. Sometimes they become president.