Anti-intellectualism in America

If you haven’t read Paul K’s comments on “Why do we reject rationality in national debate” blog piece, please do. He’s right on point as usual.

There is no better representation of this than the Tea Party propaganda. The Tea Party has seized upon the Constitution as their document to justify all types of right wing ideas. For example, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) has declared unconstitutional: the departments of Education and Housing and Urban development, child labor laws, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, all federal anti-poverty programs, Medicaid, Medicare, Social security, and the Food and Drug Administration. (Mother Jones, today).

This is Constitution Day which was created in 2004 by Sen. Robert Byrd (D), and the Tea Party is using it as an excuse to promote their causes. They are being confronted by Constitutional Accountability Center  and other progressives. Doug Kendall, said this week, “It seems the Tea Party thinks the entire 20^th century is unconstitutional.”

It seems to me that there has always been a bit of anti-intellectualism in the country. I remember the presidential race between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, where Stevenson was seen as just too intellectual for the presidency. I didn’t understand it then nor do I understand it now.

This being Constitution Day, it makes me marvel all the more of the intellectual achievements of the founding fathers, who, for the most part were intellectuals. They were not the majority and elections were generally won by who supplied the most booze on Election Day in their times. But they were the leaders of the country who found a way to work with each other to create that little document, the Constitution. And, they knew it was not intended to be a static document but a dynamic one intended to change with the growth of the country. Though I doubt they had a clue of what we would become today.

I still hold out hope for reason to reign in spite of evidence to the contrary. But I get that hope from reading books by good thinkers and reporters today, not from newspapers, and the TV news coverage. But it appears that right is just becoming more and more extreme in their views.

Just a footnote ~ Rich Perry, a man with nice hair and good teeth, but by no means an intellectual has named Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rudy Giuliani, Yang Jiechi (Chinese ambassador) Sunl Dutt (Bollywood actor and member of Indian parliament), Russell Crowe, Chris Knight, Serge Borlee (Lance Armstrong’s Belgian bodyguard), Dhani Jones (linebacker for Cincinnati Bengals) and tennis player Pete Sampras as honorary Texans.

Enough said.