May 26 2006
Dumb All Over
Quick blurb over at Americablog on a Krugman article behind the Times Select wall… (if the actual article pops up shortly, I’ll link to it)
“Since 2000, we’ve seen what happens when people who aren’t interested in the facts, who believe what they want to believe, sit in the White House. Osama bin Laden is still at large, Iraq is a mess, New Orleans is a wreck. And, of course, we’ve done nothing about global warming.
But can the sort of person who would act on global warming get elected? Are we — by which I mean both the public and the press — ready for political leaders who don’t pander, who are willing to talk about complicated issues and call for responsible policies? That’s a test of national character. I wonder whether we’ll pass.”
I don’t know how many times I’ve asked myself this question. I remember back in 2000 reading some article about G.W. being the candidate ‘people would most likely want to drink a beer with’ or ’snort a line with’ (just kidding on that second part-or am I?). I seem to remember the same article alluding to the idea that ‘Al Gore was just too smart to be president.’ Whoa. Arguably the most important job on the planet, and Gore was ‘too smart’ for it? Only in America is intelligence viewed as a liability, I guess.
Now, Gore made a lot of mistakes, independent of the constant lashings of half-truths from the MSM (while Dubya got a pass). I remember watching the first debate, and in with all the condescending demeanor, there were words he was using that I didn’t know the meaning of, and I like to think of myself as having a pretty good vocabulary. I was thinking, ‘Jeez, this is playing real well in Peoria.’ So, yes, he could have done things differently. But nevertheless, there is a really rather large streak of anti-intellectualism in this country. How else do you explain Bush’s acceptance early on? We have large segments of the population that view the scientific method as just another ‘religion’, easily dismissed.
If a candidate cut through the bullshit (and I mean REALLY cut throught the bullshit, not in the John McCain kinda way), and was able to talk about substantive issues in a way that was intelligent, yet didn’t bore us to death, would it fly? Or is that just expecting too much from this country at this point in time?
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