How Donald Trump's 'Jekyll and Hyde' Campaign Revealed Weaknesses in American Society

Abstract

Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign reflects weaknesses that have developed in the United States since the 1960s - a time parallel with his coming to maturity. He exploited the U.S. news media’s addiction to sensation, the lowered educational levels of the public since “reforms” in the 1960s transformed the nation’s primary and secondary education systems, and a coarsened social culture. He both recognized and exploited the undesirable role of money in American elections. Neither media nor academics in American universities have been able or willing to probe and fully explore real-world developments beneath the stereotypical conflicts and other issues that have dominated communications.

Keywords: Donald Trump, campaign, exploitation of media, coarsened social culture, educational level