The media can only reach those who are above a certain educational level. The masses of Americans either cannot — due to intellectual disability — or will not — due to slavery to television shows which require only prurient interests rather than thought — handle the media, so they attack it. Trump understands this. He says he tweets because he cannot get a fair hearing from the established media; what he really means is that his people can only handle tweets, in size, literary style, and raucous substance. His people are our rednecks, and they don't all live with me in Georgia either: they are all over. We have destroyed public education since Brown vs. Board of Education to such an extent that neither white nor black children get an education of any value; certainly they do not study American history and civics, only "problems" of society, which is a euphemism for political propaganda. Our public schools are holding pens for youth until they can get jobs cooking hamburgers or worse, until they get a gun, kill someone and go to prison, or get a job selling illegal drugs and eventually become drug addicts needing public assistance. The media is indeed an elitist outfit; this is not a criticism but a fact. H.L. Mencken a long time ago said you cannot lose by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. And democracy, in its populistic and nationalistic mode, is exactly what we do not need.

Norman Ravitch *62
Savannah, Ga.