Alex Trebek and the Donald

RIP to a giant who made knowing stuff cool. https://t.co/GQybsCTDLo

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 8, 2020

 If the clue reads: "In 1984 George Orwell wrote this thing was statistical, though the book says, clearly, it isn't", the correct response is: "what is sanity?"

On the day after most media outlets called the election for Mr. Biden, Alex Trebek died at his home, with his family, after a brave struggle against pancreatic cancer. In his public fight over a year and a half with the cancer, he showed grace, humility, and a defining gentle, self-deprecating humour. 

He provided a useful, even healing, counterpart to the career of that other TV show host, the one who disastrously took his act into the White House. Alex Trebek did more than making "knowing stuff cool"; he made reaching for the truth cool. He made acknowledging and correcting his mistakes cool. The TV show "Jeopardy" taught us many things, some trivial, some not, but perhaps the most important lesson the show taught came not from the clues or the questions, but from the occasional adjustments to scores as the judges accepted a response Mr. Trebek had rejected, or rejected a response he had allowed. Alex Trebek always conveyed these changes courteously, always with a tinge of regret for taking away points, and never, not ever, with any hint of wounded vanity at having his calls overruled. In doing so, he taught us nothing matters more than the truth, not the flow of the play and certainly not the ego of the host. Without display, without fanfare, without even speaking to the matter directly, he taught everyone who watched the show the importance of getting things right. 

If anyone needed a reminder of the importance of that simple concept: the truth is the truth despite of your desires, regardless of your ego, and whatever your hopes, I offer exhibit "A": a column by Anthony Furey on the subject of Donald Trump and the American election. Mr. Furey has a problem with the large number of commentators and journalists who regard Donald Trump as an appallingly bad president, despite the number of voters who supported him. He wrote:

Unbeknownst to them, as many as half of the people they passed on the street were Trump voters. This is not a healthy scenario, to so aggressively deny the dignity and human agency of your fellow voters.

 Behind the haze of adjectives lies a very simple proposition: we should speak and write as though the choices of voters can modify objective reality. Respect for dignity and agency requires accepting the right of other people to make choices. It does not require anyone to pretend voters do not sometimes choose badly. Assessing Donald Trump's fitness for office, the success or failure of his administration, his ethics or their lack, all depend on objective facts. Does Trump generally tell the truth at his public appearances, or does the description of at least one fact checker, "a firehose of lying" apply? Did Trump, at the helm of one of the most technologically advanced and the most wealthy nation of Earth, with the most lavishly funded medical system, manage to post one of the worst death and sickness tolls in the Covid-19, or not? Did Donald Trump oversee an expansion of deficit spending up to 15% of the American Gross Domestic Product, which if continued unchanged, will increase the US federal debt to GDP ratio to nearly 200% of GDP in six years? Has Mr. Trump made the slightest effort to address his mistakes, change his approach to the pandemic, rein in deficit spending? As the deficit reached 15% of GDP, did he even offer a plan to cut it back in future years?

To turn from competence to ethics, did officers of the United States take children from their parents and put them in cages with grossly inadequate facilities and nobody to offer comfort? Do published emails and other government communications indicate the Trump Administration officials indicate they made this decision to punish the parents of these children? Does the United States, under the Trump administration, currently have five hundred children in detention whose parents they cannot find? Does the Trump Administration routinely direct government travel and government functions to properties personally owned by Mr. Trump?

All these questions of fact matter. They matter more than anyone's ego. In fact, the the consequences Mr. Trump's actions, or his failures, have for his country, lie entirely outside anyone's ego. In this dark time, we owe a considerable debt to a man who reminded us, always, with nothing but quiet, unobtrusive dignity, how much the truth matters.