Clinton's appeal is and was simple: I will take from others and give goodies to YOU; I screw anything that moves, so putting me in the WH validates YOUR screwing anything that moves; I will protect and promote killing babies anytime, anywhere, by any method, for any reason, so you can be even more secure and validated in screwing anything that moves. That's Clintonism in a nutshell. It has appeal to millions of people not because of their lack of language skills, but because they are thieves and fornicators.
He makes a crucial (and telling) mistake by starting his essay with equating sounds to the letters of the alphabet. It's true that whole language reading is a fraud but learning to read is secondary to learning to think.
We, unfortunately, can be taught to think wrong.
Rational thinking is increasingly attacked as simply a European (read American) fiction. The fallacy of whole language reading is merely a further effort to cripple young minds that might fall prey to it.
If they can't read or write what harm (or good) can be done?