OT: The Republican Party...Idiots Welcome

There are any number of reasons for the Republican Party’s defeat
on November 4th. But high on the list is the fact that the party lost
the battle for brains. Barack Obama won college graduates by two
points, a group that George Bush won by six points four years ago. He
won voters with postgraduate degrees by 18 points. And he won voters
with a household income of more than $200,000—many of whom will get
thumped by his tax increases—by six points. John McCain did best among
uneducated voters in Appalachia and the South.

The Republicans lost the battle of ideas even more comprehensively
than they lost the battle for educated votes, marching into the
election armed with nothing more than slogans...

[...]

Republicanism’s anti-intellectual turn is devastating for its
future. The party’s electoral success from 1980 onwards was driven by
its ability to link brains with brawn. The conservative intelligentsia
not only helped to craft a message that resonated with working-class
Democrats, a message that emphasised entrepreneurialism, law and
order, and American pride. It also provided the party with a sweeping
policy agenda. The party’s loss of brains leaves it rudderless,
without a compelling agenda.

[...]

Why is this happening? One reason is that conservative brawn has
lost patience with brains of all kinds, conservative or liberal. Many
conservatives—particularly lower-income ones—are consumed with
elemental fury about everything from immigration to liberal do-
gooders. They take their opinions from talk-radio hosts such as Rush
Limbaugh and the deeply unsubtle Sean Hannity. And they regard Mrs
Palin’s apparent ignorance not as a problem but as a badge of honour.

Another reason is the degeneracy of the conservative
intelligentsia itself, a modern-day version of the 1970s liberals it
arose to do battle with: trapped in an ideological cocoon, defined by
its outer fringes, ruled by dynasties and incapable of adjusting to a
changed world. The movement has little to say about today’s pressing
problems, such as global warming and the debacle in Iraq, and expends
too much of its energy on xenophobia, homophobia and opposing stem-
cell research.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id...
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