If I were to run….
There is a breakdown in our society. It’s a wave of what we might call anti-intellectualism. Like most waves, the seeds were sewn long before we noticed the negative effects. Think back to when we were kids. Who were the popular kids in school? I’m willing to bet that most of them weren’t the smart kids. Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule, but those smart kids were likely referred to as “nerds” or “geeks.”
This quickly graduated out of school and seeped into every facet of our lives. The world can be split into people who trust experts and people who don’t. Sure, there are conservatives and progressives. Sure, there are religious and non-religious. Sure, there are bigots and inclusive people. Yet, all of that could possibly be traced back to educated versus uneducated.
Yet, it isn’t even that. Level of education is not a perfect demarcation for these things. It is a lot more about attitude. Do we admit that there are people that know more about things than we do? Do we respect those people for their expertise? Do we respect them even if they tell us something that we don’t necessarily already think? That is somehow the issue here.
I imagine a campaign commercial going something like this. Fade into a family sitting on an airplane as it is about to leave the runway. The “pilot” comes on the intercom and says, “hello, I’m Mr. Smith and I’ll be flying the plane today. We will be cruising at maybe 180 feet. I’m not really sure. I’ve never done this before, but it’s okay. I’m a businessman.”
These commercials write themselves. I would add another. Fade into a man sitting in a room in the hospital. “Hello Mr. Smith, my name is Mr. Johnson. I will be removing your appendix today. We will be cutting a hole in your stomach about yay big (gestures with hands). It’s going to be okay. I’ve never done this before, but it’s okay. I’m a businessman.”
I think the point is abundantly clear. My pitch is a pitch of competence. What we need right now is not bumper sticker slogans that make people froth at the mouth. We don’t need to demagogue certain groups. We don’t need 30 second sound bytes. We don’t need any of that.
What we need is for our energy grid to work. We need our roads to be paved and drivable. We need our schools to be safe and to help our students learn. We need the police to keep us safe without violating our rights. There are hundreds of things people don’t hear about that needs to happen. People need government to work for them. They need people in government that know what they are doing to work for them.
We owe people the dignity of discussing issues like adults. Of course, anti-intellectuals don’t want that. They would rather slap a label on it and make you afraid of it. Complex issues in police reform become “defund the police.” Complex issues of health insurance reform become “socialized medicine.” Complex discussions about the role of race in our history becomes “critical race theory.” Politicians that want to discuss all of these problems rationally become “socialists.”
My pledge is simple. I would never engage anyone on those terms. You can throw in “cancel culture” or “virtue signaling.” I refuse to engage anyone on any of those things until they are defined by the individual leveling the charge. More often than not, when people hear the details they are able to separate fact from fiction. We just rarely give them the details.
So, if we get beyond the labels and sound bytes we can get back to people in government that actually know what they are doing. We have spent our time in Texas worrying about everything but the stuff that matters. We seem to be stuck on wedge issues that seem to have little positive effect on most people at best. It’s time we do better. At least that’s what I would say if I were to run.
I’d add in a commercial for getting farm equipment fixed – have some guy in a business suit drive up, put on an oversized cowboy hat, and say that he’s here to fix the combine.
“Have you ever fixed one before?”
“No, but I have an M.B.A.!”
Check the old AAMCO commercials on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcX9P9JYDM
Bonus track: “The best way to fix your combine – is with more tax cuts!”
1Could not agree more. I used to feel reassured that the US President was way smarter than me. Then George W Bush was elected, and I felt less reassured. Then Obama, yay, way smarter. Of course we all know what happened next….but now Biden, huge relief! Except that I’m afraid the Dumb has overtaken so much of the country that we’ll never get past it. Of course, I live in Texas, so it’s hard to be optimistic. Especially with the likes of Greg Abbott, who is not really dumb but amoral, and panders constantly to the “room temperature IQ” voters.
2Nick, I think you need to run. And your campaign ads should be ones you wrote about above.
3You might want to sleep on it Nick.
Trouble in GOP paradise: The Trump-DeSantis alliance frays
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DeSantis: “I think you’re just overwrought. I sent you some Nabisco Marshmallow sandwiches, Don.
Unreinstated- twice impeached – 1/6 incitement to riot- Trump: “Its Mr. President and they’ve discontinued making those sandwiches you, sonofab%&#h ~
4Please add: INDICTED
5Hey anything done on a day following a night spent at a Holiday Inn is guaranteed success. If we could somehow drag our problems into the lobbies somewhere between the continental breakfasts and the check-out counters,all our troubles would be over.
6Here’s something I find ironic. I just watched an episode of The West Wing, The Two Bartletts after reading and commenting here. At the end, Toby’s trying to light a fire under the prez, like always. While talking about the electorate, he makes the observation that “the line is between educated and masculine.”
7Nick, while I agree with what you said about it not being about the level of education but willingness to be open minded, I think Sorkin was saying the same thing you’re pointing out here. And that was January of ’02.
Of course that was a year into W.’s term and 3 months after 9\11, so it was right on the money then.
The right has done everything it can to maintain that.
They just needed perpetual enemies to direct the seething sheep’s hatred at
And we’re it.
Educated vs. not so much.
Years ago I read a “what if” article, suggesting events that might have taken place had Al Gore won the 2000 election. It included the positive steps he might have taken, and the major Bush blunders he hopefully avoided.
Here’s one version:
8https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-presidency-of-al-gore_1_b_12355784
P.P.
I’m a huge West Wing fan and I remember that episode. It’s all about issue framing and it goes back to Carter (admitted it likely goes back further but that’s the limit of my personal timeline). Reagan was able to frame things simply and Carter wasn’t. They (conservatives) have always been adept at framing things using oversimplified terms that distort the truth. The key is not to play that game. Don’t come up with defund the police because that scares people. Calmly and simply spell out what you want to do. The truth is on our side and so our the numbers.
9I don’t know that it’s anti-intellectualism as much as intellectual laziness. People don’t want to make the effort to review a situation, read what experts say and then make a judgement, they just want a dog and pony show and and easy feel-good saying. I don’t think this applies to hard core Q followers who got themselves to DC, but those GOPers who listen to Fox, yes, it’s so easy.
10“Intellectual” was a sneer popular with conservatives in the ’50’s through the ’70’s. It was a danger sign then, just like the popularity of stupidity in films starting in the ’80’s. There’s always been an appreciation of dumbassity in certain circles in the US.
11Rick, that’s a great story, thanks.
12Nick, I agree totally that repugnantcans have been better at framing, and have been for decades. My point is that they’ve always portrayed themselves as the party of strength, and us as weak. Sorkin’s use of the word masculinity hit it right on the head IMHO.
The strict father analogy is old news.
They’ve embraced the chest beating, in-your-face, hit-me-back-or-you’re-a-f**kin-coward strength model that bullies, thugs, and fascists have always used. And f**king trump was the one who really cemented it.
I think 9\11 really showed them the raw power they could attain whenever they had a situation they could take advantage of. It got us into Iraq, and they learned they needed an enemy they could rely on to be predictable.
We fit the bill perfectly.
We keep trying to do right. And part of that is calmly spelling out the truth of the issues, and expecting it to be enough.
With their alternate reality infrastructure redefining everything, they’re methodically kicking our asses.
I’m not saying we abandon the truth. Far from it.
But it’s gotten past the point of bringing a knife to a Thompson submachine gun fight. I don’t even have a clever/simplistic analogy for it.
But we’ve got to do something different.
Something more.
I wish I was smart enough to figure out what.
I wish choosing politicians was so simple as “education” or “experience.” That it was only a matter of finding “people … that actually know what they are doing.”
It is clear a lack of education can be a great hindrance. But “Eight of the new representatives (Lauren Boebert of Colorado; Cori Bush, Missouri; Jerry Carl, Alabama; Madison Cawthorn, North Carolina; Yvette Herrell, New Mexico; Matt Rosendale, Montana; Ritchie Torres, New York; David Valadao, California) did not earn a four-year degree.” I don’t know several — but I’ve read about Boebert, Herrell, and Torres — and they run the gamut of clueless to accomplished.
It is clear that some who have no training or experience (*resident Trump) are disastrous. However, someone with a similar resume (scion of a rich family, increased family wealth, billionaire, no experience in political office) is doing pretty well as Governor of Illinois.
13Anti-intellectualism isn’t new. Its been around since humans discovered fire and the wheel. It took brains to do both. The humans who did not have fire or the wheel were outraged. the have-nots, who could have easily learned how to create fire and the wheel, declared war on those that did. Thus began quackadoodle conspiracy “thinking” as in “if you’ve got fire and you re cooking meat from your kills, then there is something wrong with you! We have been eating raw kill forever and sitting around chewing the fat for hours is the only way to live. As for the wheel, using it to make a wagon will only lead to weakening of tribe members. Carrying hacked up pieces of kill for miles builds muscles. The wheel will leave us unable to swing our war clubs!”
14Very young kids think this way and vocalize it as well. As they grow they are supposed to mature in every way, including in brain waves. Some just never do. They are stuck and the tragedy is of their own making.
This is exactly right. Anti-intellectualism is killing this country. And it’s not the same as lack of education. A person can be uneducated and respect expertise, or educated and think they know everything when they don’t.
I think of a man I met about 20 years ago at a deposition. He was a Black man from the deepest part of rural Louisiana, who grew up at a time when guys like him who grew up where they did never got much of an education. He never had more than a fifth-grade education. But he was smart, and friendly, and a hard worker. He married a wonderful woman and had seven kids, all of whom they sent to college. He was proud of what his children had been able to achieve. He wouldn’t have been an anti-intellectual and wouldn’t have put up with it from others.
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