There’s One Born Every Minute

In this country, liberal and center-left citizens like to imagine that they are smarter than those who identify as conservatives.  After all, they believe in evolution, not creationism.  They accept, even if they don’t exactly understand, the science behind global climate change.  They listen to NPR, instead of watching FOX News.

It is, of course, gratifying to think oneself as being on the side of the well-informed, high-minded, and sophisticated.  To say nothing of being able to pass along the occasional “can-you-believe-those-people?” post on social media.

The problem is this.  In terms of real-world politics, American liberals are – hands down – the dumbest people in the country. 

Liberals have - in almost every controversy - history, science, economics, sociology, and fundamental logic on their side.  They live in one of the most-educated – if not exactly best-educated – societies in human history.  They have at their disposal unprecedented avenues of communication.  And, on the whole, they are wealthier than their less-sophisticated fellow-citizens who vote for conservative candidates.

Yet, with all these advantages, liberals have – since 1968 – been in steady retreat before the forces of the Right in American politics.  Since the election of Richard Nixon – and with ever-increasing faiblesse since the election of Ronald Reagan – the American Left has alternated between rear-guard actions and ignominious surrender all along the battle-front.

The reason is, partly, that the American Left lacks vision.  It also lacks leadership, organization, and a political party which expresses its agenda.

But the fundamental problem with the American Left is that it is unbelievably dumb.

Aaron Sorkin said it perfectly, in the opening speech he wrote for Jeff Daniels on The Newsroom:  “If liberals are so f**king smart, how come they lose so god-damn always?”

The answer is, because they aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are.

There are a great many ways in which I could illustrate this point.  There’s the fact that American liberals – especially the younger ones – don’t bother voting in off-year elections.  Conservatives show up to vote for school boards, local governing bodies, state legislatures, and – in mid-term years – Congress.

Liberals, not so much.

As a result, the Republican Party has gradually gotten control of the re-districting process in over 30 states, a fact which allows it to draw the voting districts for state legislatures – and for the House of Representatives.

For years, in congressional elections, more Americans have voted for Democrats than have voted for Republicans – yet the House of Representatives remains solidly Republican, because the state legislatures draw districts which guarantee that outcome.

You’d think smart people would understand this, but the evidence is, they’re clueless.

Another instance of intellectual failure on the part of American liberals is their addiction to running candidates for high office who don’t actually have the experience and vision to lead the country. 

Since I was old enough to vote, the Democratic Party has managed to elect three Presidents:  Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.  Each of these men was very attractive and appealing.  Each had a great “story” to tell.

None turned out to be very effective. 

Now, personally, I love Jimmy Carter .  I believe he is the greatest ex-President since John Quincy Adams.  But there’s no question that his presidency was a flop, nor it there any doubt that it made possible the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 - which turned out to be a disaster of historic proportions.

Bill Clinton was more successful, if you set aside the fact that his administration was largely dedicated to dismantling the great legacy of past Democrats – FDR, Truman, JFK and LBJ – if on a slower timetable than a Republican would have preferred. 

But Clinton did one truly unforgivable things.  After he lied to us all about Monica Lewinsky, he refused to step down.  And this is another instance of liberals being unbelievably dumb.  After Lewinsky, Clinton was damaged goods.  In the middle of his second term, he was a lame as any lame-duck could be.

But liberals went to battle to keep him on, instead of urging him to resign and make Al Gore President.  

In 2000, despite the stench of the Clinton scandals, Al Gore lost the White House by five electoral votes.  Flip any state – even the smallest – and he wins.  Change 600 votes in Florida, and he is President, not George W. Bush.

Now, call me crazy, but I don’t see any way an incumbent President Al Gore – with two years to establish himself as President, and put the Clinton sleaze behind him – doesn’t handily defeat a goofball like George W. Bush.

Any reasonably intelligent, half-way sophisticated political mind would have seen the advantages of dumping Clinton and making Gore president in 1998, with a head-start toward the Election of 2000. 

But not America’s liberals.  They dug in to fight for Clinton – and look what it cost us!

Which brings me to the strongest illustration of American liberals being dumb.  For decades, they have repeatedly allowed themselves to be suckered by the Democratic Party’s insistence on nominating candidates who aren’t really liberal at all – and voting for them because they’re “the lesser of two evils”.

Which means, of course, that the Democratic Party – which never has to pay a price for nominating middle-of-the-road, pro-establishment candidates – keeps right on doing it, and then frightening liberal voters with the boogey-man of a Republican victory.

And here's the funny thing.  Those knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, low-brow troglodytes in the TEA Party have proved to be a whole lot smarter.   They refuse to vote for Republican candidates who aren’t conservative enough to suit them – and they've used that threat to gain control of the party and move it ever further to the right.

Which argues that maybe this country’s conservatives aren’t so dumb, after all.

And maybe its liberals aren’t nearly as smart as they’d like to think.