President
Obama didn't mention any name but nearly all of his commencement address at
Rutgers University on today was dedicated to
Donald Trump and his mix of anti-intellectualism and isolationism.
“In
politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” Obama told graduates at the
New Jersey university.
“It’s
not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real, or
telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s
just not knowing what you’re talking about.”
“When
our leaders express a disdain for facts, when they’re not held accountable for
repeating falsehoods, and just making stuff up while actual experts are
dismissed as elitist, then we’ve got a problem. The rejection of facts, the
rejection of reason and science, that is the path to decline,” he further
stated...
As
an example, Obama mentioned Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who threw a snowball on
the floor of the U.S. Senate last December in an attempt to disprove scientific
consensus on man-made climate change.
“Climate
change is not something subject to political spin. There is evidence,” he said,
adding, “Imagine if your fifth-grade science teacher had seen that. He’d get a
D!”
Obama
also said that building walls and closing borders would hurt America, anger its
allies, and threaten the country’s ability to solve global problems like the
Ebola virus that recently rocked Western Africa.
“The
world is more interconnected than ever before,” he said. “Building a wall won’t
change that.”
Obama
also waded into the debate over campus “PC culture,” chiding Rutgers students
who protested former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a graduation
speaker in 2014 as “misguided.”
“If
you disagree with somebody, bring them in, ask them tough questions,” he said.
“Stand up for what you believe in. Don’t be afraid of somebody.”
He
closed by urging students to be optimistic and engaged in the political
process, saying that “cynicism is so easy, and cynics don’t accomplish much.”
“The
system isn’t as rigged as you think, and it certainly isn’t as hopeless as you
think,” Obama said.
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