They have finally convinced me - its not about race. [View All]

Of course race is always an issue but the increasingly bizarre 'off the cliff' antics of the conservative party is a lot less about race than what has become the driving force of the Republicans and their Tea Party cohorts:

Anti-intellectualism, the driving force of the right

They hate people that are well educated.

An African American that confirms their belief system like Steele or the insufferable Ron Christie actually heightens confidence in their belief system by persuading themselves they are not bound by racial intolerance.

What cannot be tolerated is someone that makes their belief system look uneducated or stupid.

Nothing was more painful to them than the contrast of the 2008 election.

The Obama and Biden foursome consists of 4 college and 5 advanced degrees from notable institutions of higher education. Two of the four have taught at college or graduate school level classes for a total of more than 28 years. Three of the four have excelled in their class standings and the fourth, the Vice President overcame stuttering and shyness to finally succeed in his classes.

The McCain and Palin foursome consists of 3 college and 1 advanced degrees. Sarah Palin went to 4 different colleges before finally graduating while Todd Palin is a high school graduate. Senator McCain was in the lowest 1% of his class at the Naval Academy and Mrs. McCain is the only one of the four to have finished a respectable academic career with a bachelor and masters degree from USC.

This juxtaposition of the two sides was frozen in the campaign when viewing the articulate speeches of Senator Obama coming up against Governor Palin's inability to list a few national magazines that she read regularly to keep informed.

To understand how raw an uninformed Palin's answer to that question you have to ponder the fact that
her major was communication with an emphasis in journalism. Think about that wrinkle for a while and you will be compelled to consume an alcoholic beverage.

Can you imagine asking a biology, history or political science major to name their favorite biologist, historical period or President and not be able to come up with anything.



Opposition not to just liberal ideas but to the 'idea' of an idea.

Uncomfortable with ideas in general and not simply liberal ideas in particular the defection of William Buckley's son to support Obama was not met with hand wringing.

Indeed most of these conservatives, relishing in their refusal to read challenging books probably had no idea who William Buckley was.

They are tired of ideas. They feel that ideas have not provided them with additional comfort for a world that is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to them. They want the reassuring, religiously straight forward life, not of their parents but of their grandparents.

Creation: yes. Evolution: no.

Moral adherence: yes. Sex education: no.

Simple beligerent slogans: yes. Complex explanations of problems filled with statistics and analysis: no.

Slaughtered English syntax and 'you betchaisms': yes. Foriegn travel and bilingualism: no.


Political leaders with Reaganesque bumper sticker slogans yes and to all others stomping of feet so we cannot hear your questions.

And so we come to the curious case of David Frum. I hated him like I hated Wolfowitz. A neoconservative intellectual that turned a whole bunch of claptrap into a cover for the rest of the right for a war of aggression.

But unlike Wolfowitz, Frum would not conveniently fail in his post Bush career and even add a little scandal to it, instead he prospered.

I drive a lot and listen to NPR and found myself grinding my jaw while some affable host invariably asked this war criminal (in my mind) underhand lobs. "Why do they keep asking somebody that is wrong about everything anything". But he was clearly well educated, literate and he wasn't in lockstep with the religious drones. He didn't want Harriet Miers put on the Supreme Court.

Frum's firing should not be seen as an isolated act of the far right.

David Frum was the clear inheritor of the mantle of William F Buckley and even more than Chris Buckley's endorsement of Obama be seen as the reactionary right not only cutting off connections with moderate Republicans but intellectual conservatives. Frum was the modern inheritor of the 'Buckley Wing' of the conservative movement, much more than the smarmy Kristol:




The firing of David Frum convinces me that the dynamic that is controlling the reactionary right and the Republican Party controlled and fed by Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck/Palin/Steele is not primarily capitalizing on a political or racist beliefs but by a much more compelling force:

Anti-intellectualism.

They are not simply against liberal or progressive ideas.

They are not even primarily against ideas championed by someone who is African American.

They are against that ideas exist outside of religious revelations.

They are against the concept that ideas even exist.