Why GOP embraces simpletons and how it hurts America

http://news.yahoo.com/why-republicans-embrace-simpletons-hurts-america-192501947.html

 

The pull-quote mis-uses "begs the question," which suggests something about the faux-intellectual basis of the argument.

At its essence, this is an evolution of a grade-school taunt: "I'm smart, you're a big dummy."

You can say Bachmann, I'll say Pelosi and Waters. And I'll raise you a Biden.

This school of thought extends back at least as far as the 1950s, when elites got all hot and bothered for the brilliant Adlai Stevenson while deriding Eisenhower as a dope. Of course, he was smart enough to win the Big One in Europe, but no matter.

Smartest president evarr? Jimmy Carter, I rest my case.

 

It extends back much farther into our history than that. But I agree and second the abuse of 'begs the question.' It does not. It 'raises' the question.

Carter - for all his failure as a charismatic leader - was the last president we had willing to tell us the truth.

Interesting question that arises for those of us old enough to remember conservative orthodoxy: How would Bill Buckley feel about all this?

 

The reason probably falls into the same vain of why most Americans prefer football over the intellectual sport of soccer.

 

That's fine. I deleted my posts. I don't want to be a part of getting a thread locked. And this is the kind of thread where you can end up causing a nuclear explosion by some accidentally offensive word choice. I piss people off enough around here on sports and TV threads. I'll bow out here.

 

You predicted on another thread that Perry -- I think it was Perry -- would jump in the polls because of a stupid comment he made.

But, here's the thing, Newt is where he is in the polls solely because people think he's "smart" and because they "want to see him debate Obama".

Newt is not a pure conservative. He's not a religious guy (despite his born again bs he's peddling). He's a cheater who's on his third marriage. He's flip flopped on some big issues.

So, between Newt & Romney, I don't think you can say Republicans are gravitating towards simpletons.

Hell, even Ron Paul has an MD, and is no simpleton.

Sure, folks have flirted with Bachmann, Perry, and Cain, respectively, but it was their pure stupidity that led to their dropping in the polls.

Conservatives basically like where they stand on the issues, but moved away from them once they were exposed as simpletons.

 

Believe me, we all know how Buckley feels about "liberals."*

I'm asking how he'd feel about the current crop of 21st century "conservatives."




*Although I suspect his views evolved on the matter from 1950 to 1970 to 1990.

 

I do think the GOP has been trying for a populist appeal it didn't go for in the past. But sometimes they lose sight of the basics: You get a viable candidate who looks like an everyman, but is in reality far more sophisticated than that. Instead, they end up with people who are everyman because they aren't that sharp.

I wouldn't call a neighbor a complete idiot if he couldn't spell potato or was a ditzy soccer mom or whatever. But I wouldn't want them to be president either.

 

This seems an appropriate place to mention Pierce's 'Idiot America', where he speaks at length about the anti-intellectual strain within American politics