party of stupid

David Frum's article in the Times is getting a lot of attention, here's the passage I like best:

Conservatives need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the trend toward the Democrats among America’s affluent and well educated. Leaving aside the District of Columbia, 7 of America’s 10 best-educated states are strongly “blue” in national politics, and the others (Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia) have been trending blue. Of the 10 least-educated, only one (Nevada) is not reliably Republican. And so we arrive at a weird situation in which the party that identifies itself with markets, with business and with technology cannot win the votes of those who have prospered most from markets, from business and from technology.

Here's why this is true. Republicans think you're stupid. They think that they can put together a mix of policies and stands on issues that are bat-shit crazy, and that you will still vote for them, because you either don't know any better, or because you identify with them culturally on things like guns, religion, abortion, such that you would never dream of voting Democrat no matter what.

So, no surprise to me that the party of stupid, as Paul Krugman likes to call them, only has a winning message in places where people ain't so bright. This is why "drill, drill, drill" is a message that resonates. This is why John McCain can get up and talk about being a fiscal hawk, after participating in the worst fiscal discipline this country has ever seen from a historical perspective. The Bush administration added trillions in new debt, liabilities, and potential liabilities (i.e. Fannie Mae) in 8 years. Worst fiscal governance in American history. And yet they keep talking about tax cuts as the shiny solution. Don't get me wrong, lots of smart people vote Republican. But most of them vote because of "conservative principles" that the Bush administration long ago abandoned (rule of law, fiscal discipline, restrained foreign policy). People like Frum, David Brooks and A. Dollard are dismayed with the current Republican party, mainly because, these guys are smart.

And before you go getting all offended, I'm from Kentucky, went to public school, and my dad is a truck driver. I can say what I want to about any state in the union. Call me an elitist if you want to, maybe I'm just smart. Those are not the same things.