The anti-intellectual Right

Albert The Pious is unhappy today because Paul Krugman acknowledged a few days ago that the anti-intellectual Right has finally succeeded in creating a movement without any intellectuals.

Golly. Ya think?

Now, you have a man of the Left, who also has a very influential media platform and voice in society, who’s saying to media outlets, “Just give up. Don’t even look for credible intellectual Conservatives because they don’t exist. They are as non-existent as unicorns.” Just in case we missed his point, he concludes by writing, “The Left has genuine public intellectuals with actual ideas and at least some real influence. The Right does not. News organizations,” wrote Krugman, “don’t seem to have figured out how to deal with this reality, except by pretending that it doesn’t exist. And that,” says Krugman, “is why we keep having these debacles,” speaking of the hiring and firing of Kevin Williamson.

Unhappily, Krugman is correct. The contemporary Right is deeply anti-intellectual, and has purged itself of properly functioning minds. If it were otherwise, the Republican Party would have done the obvious thing and refused to nominate incurious halfwits like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.

The Republican Party I grew up in valued education and achievement, and politely ignored fools like Albert Mohler — and that party has ceased to exist.

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