POINT OF ORDER
TIM COHEN: Why we vote for idiots — and how not to
Donald Trump’s degrading, racist outburst wipes out Obama’s carefully nurtured global legacy
Why do normally sensible, intelligent people vote for witless nutters who are virtually assured of causing their countries deep harm? I wondered about this when reading about US President Donald Trump’s degrading, false, racist outburst last week. When the most senior US politicians were discussing protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, Trump asked: "Why are we having all these people from sh**hole countries come here?" In a single sentence, Trump took the US government’s global influence, carefully nurtured by the Obama administration, and wiped his backside with it. In an extremely rare act of unity, African leaders unanimously condemned the comment, as did many others.Well-meaning articles in the US press point out that the proportion of African immigrants to the US with bachelor’s degrees outnumbers the US population with similar qualifications. Last week there was a similar crisis, and next week there will b...
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