Why GOP embraces simpletons and how it hurts America

Redford made "The Candidate" in 1972 as an indictment of the vapidness and lack of substance of our politicians.

Sixteen years later, Dan Quayle said it was his favorite movie and the reason he got into politics.

 

The relentless drive by much of the Right to convert education into a private pursuit is so transparent, it's hilarious.

 

Romney has an MBA and a JD -- from Harvard.

Newt has a PhD. from Tulane and is a former History Professor.

Herman Cain has a BS in mathematics, and a masters in Computer Science.

Ron Paul has an MD.

These are the top four in the GOP primary polls.

These are simpletons? These guys are dumb?

 

Exactly right. And we dumped him for the actor who sold us absurd fairy tales (no, really, cutting taxes for the rich will actually reduce the debt and increase revenue!! Super Star War lasers will shoot down from the moon!!) that we're still paying the price for today. For all his legitimate flaws, Carter at least tried to talk to us about our problems like adults--and he was crushed for it.

 

It's entertaining to see the bickering between the left and right. It's why this country is in this mess to begin with. We should vote for people and not parties, policies and not ideologies. It is quite the primitive system when you really look at it.

 

We shouldn't vote for policies?

 

When's the last time you worried about the Soviet Union?

Star Wars scared the crap out of them. The arms race bankrupted them.

Much of what was only imagined then in terms of defense, is real now.

 

If Cain thinks anybody sober is going to buy his version of Snow White . . . yeah, he's dumb . . .certainly within the political arena.

Paul, like many otherwise-proficient libertarians, is wholly naive re American foreign policy.

 

I think he needed a semi-colon there.

I believe he's saying we should vote for policies, not ideologies.

 

Was reading an old Will Rogers column the other day, of all things. Back then he was arguing -- I think it was only half in jest -- that Congress would be more effective if people were just elected for life instead of for two-year terms that kept them always sucking up to their donors.

That was in the 1920s. As the influence of money has grown, I have to say I'm not totally against that idea.

 

Herman is definitely not ready for prime time. I don't think he's given a moment's thought to foreign policy before he entered the race, and is trying to just answer with memorized lines.

But, the guy is not dumb, nor a simpleton.

Don't disagree with you about Paul, but would never describe him as a simpleton.

 

Don't be fooled by "credentials."

It's an article of faith on the right that Jimmy Carter was an idiot and a weakling. Jimmy Carter was a Naval Academy graduate and a Cold War nuclear submariner with graduate training in reactor physics.