Why GOP embraces simpletons and how it hurts America

[Inky_Wretch]

The question naturally begs a larger question: How can a country, with the world’s highest national GDP, and absurdly complex systems regulating everything from credit default swaps to nuclear missile safety, possibly allow onto its national stage men and women of such transparently inferior intellect?

The easy answer is that there has always been a long, pathetic history of anti-intellectual paranoia in American politics, as Richard Hofstadter documented in his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963). It is like kudzu. You just can’t kill it. No matter how advanced the U.S. becomes in technology, biomedicine, and weaponry, it not only attracts, but promotes, under the rubric of equal opportunity, a confederacy of dunces as Presidential candidates.

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

 

[HejiraHenry]

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.

 

[Moderator1]

Our "let's see what happens" attitude toward political threads may take a beating with this one - so be careful. Don't be the one who makes us say, "How stupid are we for even trying?" Just don't. If you can't post here without name calling or going over the top, don't post.

 

[Azrael]

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?

 

[Moderator1]

Didn't say your or anyone else did - if you did, I would have noted it. I just see the thread title and think of how some may react. Frankly, I don't give this one much of a chance of lasting long.

 

[Moderator1]

Actually it came earlier and I got one of those "warning - a new reply" things. I wouldn't imply if I thought someone was mucking up the works. Trust me on that.

 

[Boom_70]

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

 

[Dick Whitman]

Actually it came earlier and I got one of those "warning - a new reply" things. I wouldn't imply if I thought someone was mucking up the works. Trust me on that.

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 **** people off enough around here on sports and TV threads. I'll bow out here.

 

[YankeeFan]

The last two Democrats elected president graduated from, respectively, Yale and Harvard law schools.

The Republican field has a frontrunner who has a JD/MBA from Harvard. "The base" wants nothing to do with him.

This isn't to say that going to an Ivy League school is a qualifying trait for president. But it shouldn't be disqualifying.

Cue Dooley calling me an "elitist."

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.

 

[Azrael]

How would Bill Buckley feel about all this?

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.

 

[BrianGriffin]

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.

 

[maberger]

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

 

[LongTimeListener]

Redford made "The Candidate" in 1972 as an indictment of the vapidness and lack of substance of our politicians.

Sixteen years later, Dan Quayle said it was his favorite movie and the reason he got into politics.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

The relentless drive by much of the Right to convert education into a private pursuit is so transparent, it's hilarious.

 

[YankeeFan]

Romney has an MBA and a JD -- from Harvard.

Newt has a PhD. from Tulane and is a former History Professor.

Herman Cain has a BS in mathematics, and a masters in Computer Science.

Ron Paul has an MD.

These are the top four in the GOP primary polls.

These are simpletons? These guys are dumb?

 

[Stoney]

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

Exactly right. And we dumped him for the actor who sold us absurd fairy tales (no, really, cutting taxes for the rich will actually reduce the debt and increase revenue!! Super Star War lasers will shoot down from the moon!!) that we're still paying the price for today. For all his legitimate flaws, Carter at least tried to talk to us about our problems like adults--and he was crushed for it.

 

[NickMordo]

It's entertaining to see the bickering between the left and right. It's why this country is in this mess to begin with. We should vote for people and not parties, policies and not ideologies. It is quite the primitive system when you really look at it.

 

[Dick Whitman]

We should vote for people and not parties, policies and not ideologies.

We shouldn't vote for policies?

 

[YankeeFan]

Exactly right. And we dumped him for the actor who sold us absurd fairy tales (no, really, cutting taxes for the rich will actually reduce the debt and increase revenue!! Super Star War lasers will shoot down from the moon!!) that we're still paying the price for today. For all his legitimate flaws, Carter at least tried to talk to us about our problems like adults--and he was crushed for it.

When's the last time you worried about the Soviet Union?

Star Wars scared the crap out of them. The arms race bankrupted them.

Much of what was only imagined then in terms of defense, is real now.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Romney has an MBA and a JD -- from Harvard.

Newt has a PhD. from Tulane and is a former History Professor.

Herman Cain has a BS in mathematics, and a masters in Computer Science.

Ron Paul has an MD.

These are the top four in the GOP primary polls.

These are simpletons? These guys are dumb?

If Cain thinks anybody sober is going to buy his version of Snow White . . . yeah, he's dumb . . .certainly within the political arena.

Paul, like many otherwise-proficient libertarians, is wholly naive re American foreign policy.