Know-Nothing Politics

Paul Krugman has a wonderful article in the New York Times which really goes to heart of what the Republican party have become under neo-con management: They have become the party of the stupid:

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

This fact is perfectly illustrated by the difference between Obama and McCain's reaction to the current crisis between Russia and Georgia, which Ben Smith has recognised as a "3am moment".

While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia.

Russia has long attempted to reclaim now-sovereign parts of the former Soviet Union, stoking conflicts in the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are universally recognized to be Georgian soil. Russia has also used the ensuing military tensions to set back Georgia’s bid to enter NATO.

But Georgia appears to have sparked the conflict by marching on the South Ossetian capital as Russia’s powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin headed to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Russia, in turn, welcomed the conflict, launching a large-scale attack on its smaller neighbor and sending tanks across its border.

Both American candidates back Georgia’s sovereignty and its turn toward the West. But their first statements on the crisis revealed differences of substance and style.

Obama’s statement put him in line with the White House, the European Union, NATO and a series of European powers, while McCain’s initial statement — which he delivered in Iowa and ran on a blog on his Web site under the title “McCain Statement on Russian Invasion of Georgia” — put him more closely in line with the moral clarity and American exceptionalism projected by President Bush’s first term.

McCain has clearly decided that Russia is the aggressor here for no other reason than Georgia is pro-west and wants to join Nato. It is this black and white view of the world which reduces all complex issues to soundbites for Republicans and it's not unsuccessful.

I think many Republican supporters share in this shallow view of complex situations and take great comfort from not having to think too deeply about issues which can be complicated.

Our side are on the side of good and if you are not on our side then you are evil. This is the Bush mantra that McCain also seems to embody.

As Krugman points out, look at how they sold the Iraq war:

The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.

Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”

They seem to loathe any form of intellectualism and, as Obama pointed out the other day, "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." As Noonan's comment proves, they do.

The most depressing thing about this cult of ignorance is that it seems to fool so many people.

It doesn't matter that McCain is talking dangerous nonsense, all that matters is that it sounds macho and forceful. It doesn't matter that his drilling plan won't bring down prices at the pump in the short term as he's claiming, all that matters is that he wants to "do something". His arguments are stupid, like the notion that Obama is somehow richer than he is and that he, along with the electorate, faces "tough times".

The McCain campaign are treating the electorate with contempt, they are pedalling untruths which they are betting the public are too stupid to see through. It's at this point that one would hope that a non biased media would step up to the plate and point out what is actually taking place.

But we've long ago stopped expecting that.

Click title for Krugman's article.

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

Tags: McCain, Obama, GOP, machismo, stupidity, lies, US election 2008