The so-called dumbing down is not particular to the GOP. I see it as a wider cultural trend with parallels in TV reality shows that make bratty nonentities into marketable stars, game shows that turn average joes into millionnaires just by answering a few questions or guessing at suitcases, and the growing celebrity cult that celebrates celebrities for being celebrities.

Add this to widespread disenchantment over politics and a GOP that has been telling America that government should do as little as possible and it's no wonder that so many Americans no longer associate skill, vision, and intelligence with running for President.

In other words, more Americans tend to think achievement is a matter of luck or PR, and that fame and a good job can be had by ... well, anyone.

I agree with you on who should be the next President. I don't agree that it is necessary to hate the opposition. Senator Biden likes her very much and so do I. What she has to say is a breathe of fresh air compared to your hate rant.

There are times when I have NO clue what she's trying to say. Her words seem strung together, making no sense whatsoever.

Someone called it Squid Ink.

Maybe every squid out there is a genius, too.

i agree, and thanks for this article! where are all of the conservatives who rightly believe that intellegence is connected to doing effective work? baffling. i can think of two conservatives right away -- Alan Bloom and William Safire -- who i would have thought would be writing up a storm of protest beginning several years back. and i am sure there are many more. but no, utter silence.

"As difficult as this is to believe, Palin has more actual leadership experience than Obama, who never even held a meeting of the committee that he was put in charge of in Congress. Of course, Palin is nominated as VP. The Dems nominated someone with no leadership experience for President."

Yes, if you choose to willfully ignore everything Obama has done in his impressive life, he is such a loser! This is quite easy to do if you get your noise from Fox/Limbaugh and are anti-intellectual and don't let objective reality harsh your mellow.

Cheers,

This is the best article I have seen on this subject. Yes, how can conservatives tolerate the likes of Palin on their ticket? Could it be that they are so shallow and bankrupt intellectually they don't even realize Palin's, Bush's, and Quayle's vacuous mouthiness for what it is, or are they so cynical, they'll do anything to elect a conservative no matter how crooked their stripes? Perhaps many conservatives are so brainwashed by the right wing machine, they have purposely shut down their own critical faculties in order to stay in the party! Or maybe many are actually dumb. That's another possibility.

This is the culmination of a strategy the Republicans cynically put into place with the Reagan candidacy, i.e., make poor, uneducated white people believe that the source of their problems is the government handing out welfare to lazy minorities, thereby allowing corporate donors to fleece them without really being seen.

It's an amazing feat. The $30,000 a year secretary and her assistant manager husband earning $30,000 per year cannot possibly make ends meet with almost $1000 a month coming out of their net pay for health insurance, and gasoline at $4.00 per gallon. However, they will bristle with indignation at the idea of "socialized" medicine or capping CEO salaries, insisting that all of their financial dilemmas could be solved by cutting everybody off welfare. They believe that all taxes are bad and NEVER connect the fact that they have roads, police, airports, etc.because of taxes. The only tax dollars they want to pay are those that go to "DEFENSE" without the slightest idea where or how that money is spent.

Selling this nonsense is difficult for the educated and intelligent, so over time, Quayle, "W", and now Palin, became the public face of this charade, embracing and echoing the Reagan Legacy-"Making America Ignorant and Proud of It."

Sure, Palin is telegenic and can deliver a prepared speech - so give her a talk show and she can take on Oprah.

Nothing I have seen, heard, or read about Gov Palin gives me a shred of assurance that she can handle the job of VP, much less step in as president if necessary.

Sarah Palin may be fine as governor of Alaska (I know she couldn't even get elected mayor of any major city in the lower 48), but she would be eaten alive on the international stage.

If I want folksy and down-home, I'll watch a Reba rerun. If I want to hear a well read political speech, I'll watch C-Span. Sen Biden came out of the debate looking like a statesman. Gov Palin came off like the head of the Wasilla PTA.

We suffered through 9/11 with our doofus president; he bumbled into Iraq, crushed our economy and is leaving the US Treasury completely empty.

To paraphrase Palin, "never again, never again."

The GOP has a policy that does not support education. McCain has voted to reduce teacher's salaries. The reward for teacher's should be in a paycheck and not "in heaven". No child left behind is a farce. Every child has been left behind. Sarah Palin is an example of the failure of American public schools to instill a lifelong passion of learning. It is embarrassingly obvious that she knows nothing about foreign cultures, domestic issues, economics, or that she has a passion for reading. In fact, she is not interested in any of these things.

Many foreign countries systematically dumb down the peasant population. If a population thinks critically, thinks individually inevitably there will protesters against reigning dictators or systems of government. I have to wonder if the GOP would rather have a population that ingests hours of Fox News propaganda and can be more easily brainwashed to actually believe that their candidate, Sarah Palin is actually qualified to be VP of the United States, or inevitably President of the United States of America. For as much as McCain and Palin reference Reagan, he is probably rolling over in his grave.