Eugene Robinson: In 2017, knowledge, experience, truth matter more than ever
Humility is a virtue but fake humility is a sin, or ought to be. So let me begin the new year with full-throated praise of some people and institutions that supposedly got their comeuppance in November: the mainstream media, so-called “coastal elites,” share-the-wealth liberals, pointy-headed intellectuals and others said to be hopelessly out of touch with the “real America.”
In what too quickly became the consensus view, all of the above were put in their place by Donald Trump’s narrow electoral victory. We unreal Americans were demonstrated to be clueless, the conventional wisdom has ruled, and now are obliged to slink away and repent.
All of this is pure rubbish. It’s time to stop all the self-flagellation and raise our voices to insist that things like knowledge, experience, qualifications and respect for objective fact still matter — now, perhaps, more than ever.
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Remember that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. I point that out not to delegitimize Trump’s election, but to refute the notion that Trump’s America is somehow more “real” than mine or yours or anyone else’s. The America that supports progressive policies, rejects racism and sexism in all their forms and believes that what critics call “political correctness” is actually just common courtesy — that America is real, too, and needs to make itself heard.
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/robinson-in-2017-knowledge-experience-truth-matter-more-than-ever/
