I've been thinking today... what if the Left really is smarter than the Right? Hey, it's possible; maybe individually leftists are smarter than rightists. Let's say that's true. Even still, the evidence of the past six decades demonstrates conclusively that the political ideas of the left are doomed to failure. Huh.
So what if it turns out to be the case that the same types of brains that create entertaining movies and books, craft fashion, and teach in universities also tend to come up with really bad political positions? Maybe people with those kinds of intelligences naturally arrive at solutions to political problems that just don't work. Maybe they are smarter than the rightists in some ways, but just not in this particular way.
Maybe no one type of person is physiologically capable of coming up with the right answers to every question. You know the types of people who are brilliant with math but can't write worth beans, and vice versa. Maybe politics fits into a similar mold, and for whatever reason the brilliant leftists who contribute all sorts of neat stuff to our society just stink at running our institutions.
As I've tried to tell you before, the right doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas... or even a vast majority of them.
The right does well in terms of fiscal policies... smaller government, lower taxes, privatization of certain things. The left does well in terms of social policies... civil liberties, etc.
Neither the left nor the right have found the best approach to foreign affairs.
For Libertarians like myself, neither the Republican nor Democratic party offer the real deal. Since the elections in 2008 will be without a Presidential incumbent to rally against, I'll most likely be voting Libertarian... unless there's a really appealing Democratic or Republican candidate.
Well, exit polls from the LA Times show that college grads split evenly in the election, and that every age group over 30 broke for Bush, as did people making over $40K a year. Older people may not be significantly smarter on average, but they usually are past their "young and stupid" epoch.
The biggest non-racial, non-religious demographic: married people favored Bush by 58%, singles by 38%. Are married people stupider than average?
All data seem to indicate that this election split on lifestyle and philosophy. The "stupid" thing seems to me to come from the non-religious person's view of religious people primarily.
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