The problem with lefties/dems is not that they don’t believe in anything , as the repubs like to say, the problem is we believe in too many things. As a very blanket statement, we believe in everything that we think will make the world a more just, egalitarian and peaceful place. Ok, pretty unified so far. We believe that government and citizens should work together to make the world a better place. Still with me? We believe that…..ok, I have run out of things we all believe.
It is when we get past the first layer of agreement that the problems start to manifest. It is when we start to try to decide precisely how to make the world better that things start to break down. It is when we go to set priorities that we get in trouble. It is when we have to address exactly what to do, when we have to find and agree on specific ways and means of coming together, that we fall apart.
One possible explanation is that we are just too smart, unlike the R’s, who Krugman maintains have become the party of stupidity.
What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism – the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise – has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
The Stupidification of America becoming a theme. The Repubs not only practice it, they enforce it by destroying the education system as thoroughly as possible whenever they get the chance. Since any sort of realistic complex answers for the problems of an increasingly and amazingly complex world are beyond not just their intellect, but beyond their very ideology, what choice do they have? An educated populace would reject their simplistic world view (Axis of Evil, KILL NOW!) and vote them out of office forever. Any philosophy of action or policy that actually works in the modern world must contain actual thought, nuance and sophistication….in other words….have a liberal bias.
Stupidification of course, manifested itself most brilliantly in the election of George Bush by folks whose standard for the leader of the free world and commander of the worlds most eager military and largest nuclear arsenal should not be the smartest guy we could find, but someone they wanted to drink a beer with. Thanks, morans.
Leonard Pitts, from the above link….
In recent years, we have seen intelligence demonized as the sole province of the “elite,” a term that once described accomplishment, but is now used to condemn anyone who looks like he might have accidentally cracked a book or had a thought.
Fortunately for them and unfortunately for us, their simple plan of stupidification, works.
Back to Krugman
Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” – and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.
Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”
The Left always has the responsibility of coming up with the real ideas, solutions and policies. Then The Right steals them relabels them, spins them and takes credit. But first….there is a long process of rancorous argument and recrimination on The Left as to which version of the good idea to advance, how to frame it, etc. etc. etc. In effect we have too many good ideas. In effect we have too many smart people. In effect, The Right is effective because their Authoritarian mindset makes it easy for them to put their egos aside and do as they are told. The Rights single area in which they excel is again, simple. They wait for The Left to propose something and then react against it or steal it. The Left gets stuck at the first step…putting their egos aside. After all, when you KNOW you are the smartest ‘guy’ in the room, why should you be the one to give in?
So actually despite their framing, it is The Right who have no ideas, nothing that they stand for….besides opposing The Left. And of course, trying to convince everyone else that being smart is bad. But The Left can never fully defeat them, or their purposeful stupidification of our populace and electorate….because we are to busy arguing HOW to do it.
But then again, this is just a stupid theory I came up with…..
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Oh and one more…
Is that a word?
It can’t be. It has too many sillabels.
they really do have it easy. They bluster and howl.
Being outraged seems to be the lone province of middle aged white guys these days. They are still pissed off that the chicks and the folks of color have got educashuns and jobs and such which is the basis for their blather.
Forty years ago you could still be an incompetent white dude and do alright for yourself. That is why they get so pissy about affirmative action, now they actually have to compete with shortcomings exposed.
The left has few “official” spokespersons, something the MSM virtually demands and have not done a good job at convincing or attracting the working classes who sometimes prefer the anger and resentment of their elite lords to the messiness and inclusion of the left. The right doesn’t actually want the masses to work for change whereas the left is asking them to do stuff with no apparent traditional leadership to guide.
Cat herders. Apply here.
… and they are already doing the work, and they’ve been doing it for decades and teaching the next generation what to do as well.
We fall pray to the shiny distractions and their voices are not heard.
But they’re talking and they’re doing.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
individual ways.
Can’t say Dems are smarter than Repubs, or vice versa.
Can’t say lefties are smarter than righties, or vice versa.
Jefferson had it right. He didn’t believe in concentration of power. He believed in the value of individuals. Not just smart individuals. Not just individuals having a particular political persuastion. All individuals.
He fought for the Bill of Rights.
He would weep at what has become of America. A country that has diminished the role and the value of the individual — all with the goal of shifting power to corporations and government.
Sadly, I think, all too often, the lefty/dems hand them the ammo. I’m sure many will disagree with me ;-), but IMHO, we too often want total agreement from every lefty/dem on each item on our personal agenda.
IMHO, though we pride ourselves on our “tolerance”, it seems that sometimes we don’t tolerate each other’s deviating too far from our own (pick one or more of the following) world, national, and social, ethical, cultural, linguistic expression preferences, and/or religious views. Just review some of the flame wars on those “tolerant” lefty blogs 😉
Personally for me it is sometimes so discouraging to see the horrific damage that bush and cheny have done/continue to do, and believe that the only way to defeat more of the same happening is to first unite behind those most people and policies most likely to succeed in at least breaking the stranglehold that the neocons have had on this country for 15+ years–yet seeing fellow lefties get into derailing squabbles over single issues, or over personalities.
I’m not sure I’m expressing this well at all, but I hope that in Nov. the neocons don’t use ammo supplied by us to conquer us yet again.
difference between those on the left and the right is more about the level of “sureness” they require more than its about the level of intelligence.
The right’s need for being sure leads to simplistic answers while the left tends to be more comfortable with questions and complexity.
Of course flame wars on the left blogosphere seem to point to the possibility that I am seriously wrong about that. LOL
Now as then.
As unethical as it is, it seems to me that this process requires a great deal of thought and intelligence. Some very smart people get paid to do this.
I’ve known some people who are very skilled at the art of manipulation, and I’m not so sure this is stupidity at work, but perhaps insanity?
I think sometimes it isn’t a lack of intelligence, but a lack of conscience.
Well, there I go – a cerebral liberal over-thinking things again!
…completely.
How many P&J meetings I have sat through watching the destructiveness of ego attachment! Cindy Sheehan cited this as her reason for dropping out of the peace movement in the Spring 2007.
Yet we don’t have to become authoritarian. We only need to be sufficiently open to recognize the validity of other ideas besides our own. This can lead to compromise and better action. Alas, however, the ability to do this seems far too rare!
–John McCain, Speech at Ohio Wesleyan University (1996)
Stupidification.
It’s dominated by the Two-Right-Wing-Party system.