Why Ignorance Has Ruled Washington

If you've been wondering how these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington in the first place, there's a plausible explanation by George Monbiot in The Guardian entitled, well, exactly that. Monbiot asks in his article, "How did so many U.S. citizens become so stupid and so suspicious of intelligence?" He cites Susan Jacoby's book 'The Age of American Unreason' as providing "the fullest explanation" he has come across.

Jacoby points to the fact that that education in the U.S. is controlled locally, not by the federal government. In the southern states when you bring in several factors such as the anti-desegregation planter mentality, the earlier rejection of Darwinism (but the acceptance of social Darwinism), the suspicious view towards intellectuals (even that they're subversive), and the Southern Baptist Convention whose beliefs have permeated the public school system, you then start to understand why Obama (and others) have had to play down their education in order to appear qualified for the presidency. You start to understand the red state/blue state distinction and also why lower income people vote against their best interest. And you start to understand why the likes of Bush and Palin are so appealing.

[My thanks to my liberal elite uncle in Boston for sending this article to me.]