"We now have an electorate for whom facts have no meaning and programs apparently have little value and generate even less interest"

Huh, are you kidding?
Data?  
Representative examples? 
Constructed logic?

The "ideas" of the Obama-Clinton world view were most definitely evaluated during the election. I suspect one debate question decided the election.

The last debate...the question on partial birth abortion...where Clinton ardently defended it..and Trump clearly rejected it.

That question and their responss clarified "the ideas" at stake effectively enough. 

The received Agenda was booted by 30 of 50 states.