Wednesday, September 14, 2011

PERRY and Anti Smarts

Big H/T to Jennifer Rubin at Politico for this posting :

GOP SHOULD NOT FALL INTO TRAP OF BEING PROUDLY IGNORANT

" Republicans have sometimes mistaken anti-elitism with anti-smarts. Put differently, Republicans should not have contempt for the voters or for ideas, lest they be judged unworthy of serving in office. It's one thing to heap scorn on liberal elites who parrot unsupportable leftist dogma or who show contempt for ordinary Americans' values; it's quite another to celebrate ignorance."

"......today, Texas Gov. Rick Perry went to Liberty University. It was, at least in part, a celebration of ignorance. The Post's reporter at the scene, Phil Rucker, tweeted some of the remarks. Jon Ward at Huffington Post, recorded some comments. Things started off on a poor note with Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. praising Perry's secessionist remarks as " gutsy." Are we to believe now that Perry was serious about secession ? Then Perry, apparently deciding to make ads for the Obama campaign, came out with a series of " See how dumb I am ?" one - liners. He observed that he needed to pull out a dictionary to see what " convocation" meant. The next knee-slapper; He didn't have the grades to be a vet, so he became a pilot. And then the real howler: He was in the top 10 in a high school class of 13.
Yes, he was trying to be self-deprecating, but it's disturbing to see that he thinks a rotten student and a know-nothing gives one street cred in the GOP. .....What Perry is doing here is telling moderate Republicans and those voters genuinely concerned about his electability to buzz off. He doesn't need them, and he doesn't intend to make it easy for them to vote for him. He's telling them he is happily impervious to mainstream sensibilities. It's the sort of thing a Texas pol, not a presidential candidate, would do."

This is increasingly a problem.....Perry's flaunting of his own absent smarts. Like s slow kid in a class who taunts the bright kids and rallies around him a small gang of equally slow kids. Should the class dumb itself down to their level so they'll be content ? I don't think so.

CraigS


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there a link to a video of this?? That sounds......really "stupid".

craigs said...

Anon,
I'm sure it's all on some video as it was all public at Liberty University. I'll check over the next day or so. There are certainly recordings.

Craig

Pablo said...

First, after having seen Rick Perry's grades, I find it hard to believe that there was at least three other students that did worse them him.

Second, Perry's ignorance is an advantage for him in the Republican primary. Romney will be derided as a technocrat while Perry will be viewed as "principled." Again, I have stated this before, but it needs repeating: The conservative movement consists largely of low information voters who naturally flock to somebody like Perry. The Republican Party needs to build a new coalition that does not depend on Rush Limbaugh listeners.

Ohio JOE said...

".....What Perry is doing here is telling moderate Republicans and those voters genuinely concerned about his electability to buzz off. He doesn't need them, and he doesn't intend to make it easy for them to vote for him." How is that different from when you guys pretend to be ignorant and say 'don't worry, SS is not a Ponzi scheme, it won't go bankrupt for another 20 years. Sure we need a little reform, but no big deal.' Or 'if you don't count food and energy costs, inflation is not a problem.' Or 'what housing crises, our banking system is OK, the FED is doind a great job.' Or 'we don't need to balance the budget, you simpleton should grateful to we in the elite who at slowed the growth of government spending.' Or 'just trust us, despite the fact that the past few winters have been cold, global warming is coming, it really is, trust us.' Or 'who care about social issues, at least we are Capitalists, or at least sometimes; OK darn it just vote for us because we are not total Socialists.'

So you see, ignorance of both Capitalism and Conservatism in gereral is not making it easy for Conservatives to support you in the general election. But, you guys have made it clear that you do not want Conservative votes in the general election, so run along and play.

craigs said...

OJ
What are you trying to say ?
Global warming ? 100 percent of scientists say it's for real. A few of those are not convinced of the human role in warming. So, who are we to believe, the scientists or a guy with a 1.9 GPA.

Social Security is solvent until 2036 .Actuarilly correct. And it won't take too many adjustments to make it permanently solvent. You know this as well. Little too soon to transfer this to the individual states.

Everbody favors a balanced budget. What's your point ?

CraigS

Inflation, running at one percent a year, is not a problem. You know this. It may be a big problem in the future, but it isn't yet.

Ohio JOE said...

"100 percent of scientists say it's for real" And 100 % used to say that the earth was flat.

"So, who are we to believe, the scientists or a guy with a 1.9 GPA." Just because my GPA was about twice as good as Mr. Perry, does not make me qualified to be governor or a scientist.



"Inflation, running at one percent a year, is not a problem. You know this. It may be a big problem in the future, but it isn't yet." Then global warming is not a problem yet. It might perhaps be a problem in the future.

Further: "The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August after jumping 0.5 percent in July. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent.

For the 12 months that ended in August, the core index surged 2 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly three years. That's at the high end of the Federal Reserve's informal inflation target. It could limit the central bank's ability to take further steps to try to revive the economy."

"Social Security is solvent until 2036 .Actuarilly correct." If a Life Insurance company said that 'we are OK until the 2030s and sometime after that we will slowly go bankrupt (and/or fail to meet our obligation,) somehow I do not think that would sit well with either the authorities or the public.


"And it won't take too many adjustments to make it permanently solvent." That assumes that the burth rate will increase, the economy will turn around and that people will stop living longer. Yes that may be the case, but that is not our current path.

"Everbody favors a balanced budget. What's your point ?" Yes and no. While few would outright advocated an unbalanced budget per se, not enough within our party leadership are serious enough to head in this direction at a reasonable pace.

Crystalf said...

Jennifer Rubin did a follow up on this article because there was so much attention drawn to it: Republicans should be smart - Right Turn - The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/republicans-should-be-smart/2011/03/29/gIQAOuEjSK_blog.html via @washingtonpost