There was a study released the other day about conservative dumbness that I broached in this blog and heard about it from some Republican hardcore types. Problem for the Repubs, though, is that the smart ones, and there are plenty of them, are becoming increasingly embarrassed, even mortified, by what's happening to their party.This is from the Manchester Guardian's George Monbiot in a recent commentary (remember, this is the British take and they don't really have a dog in this fight):
"Listen to what two former Republican ideologues, David Frum and Mike Lofgren, have been saying. Frum warns that 'conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics.' The result is a 'shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology' which has 'ominous real-world consequences for American society.'
"Lofgren complains that 'the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today.' The Republican party, with its 'prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science' is appealing to what he calls the 'low-information voter,' [a recent study showed that people who watch Fox News know less than those who watch no news at all] or the 'misinformation voter.'
"While most office-holders probably don’t believe the 'reactionary and paranoid claptrap' they peddle, 'they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base.'"
So, who's worse here, the ignorant or those who use them?
(Graphic: estergoldberg.com)
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