Making America Great???
I don't think so

I stood dzed in the parking lot. Curriculum Committee meetings do that to me. The only reason the engineering science writing course, a few far sighted faculty and I were trying to create, wasn't shot down was that the committee had tabled it. Meanwhile, a student, probably in a rush to go to evening classes, had snuck into the faculty lot. He or she was parked next to me, and on what passes for a bumper these days was a sticker.

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis is a bit dated, and too long for our students to read. The US got lucky and produced Roosevelt in the thirties. Now in the teens of another century, our luck has run out.

"His ideas are as American as what I leave in the toilet bowl on a good day," I tell my absent student with the bumper sticker. "He wants to keep twenty-five percent of the world's population from immigrating or even visiting here just due to one or two bad apples. How would you like it if someone did that to Americans wanting to travel or move from state to state.

"He blusters about leading you into a war in Syria. I know you haven't joined the military or are hopefully done with your service, but haven't you just plain had enough of war. We really need a third war we can't win or leave.

"He promises nothing to help higher education, and you are a college student. Aid to higher ed is aide to you! He promises nothing to make college more affordable. You may be borrowing money to pay to read 'Story of an Hour.'

"He is not going to make it so you don't have to take what skills and credential you get here and move elsewhere in search of better work. I came from elsewhere; in fact I came from several elsewheres. No one is going to change that, and if you finish a four year degree at the University of Wyoming, you are still probably going to have to go elsewhere. It would take a radical reworking of the economy to change that, and that's not going to happen!"

Of course what I really should do is ask the student why he or she supports Trump and then listen, but he needs to hear me too and so do a lot of other frustrated people who want to scrabble in the hardscrabble because it is in their blood just as five years of math and French in highschool were in my blood. And for some people, moving on to sell your human capital, is not an option. I have news for all of you though who hope he will make America great: Trump is certainly not listening to you.