How dumb are conservatives?

[11B4V]

One of the worst features of modern democracy is that everyone has a vote and each vote is equal.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried." - Leonard Nimoy 

or was it Spock........

[Valmy]

2001 seems to have been a magical year of convergence.

[garbon]

True, I only went GOP in 2011 but now in 2012 we're on an uptick.

Heh, gay minority said "we".

We can be whatever we want.

[DGuller]

Some Republicans are not terribly up to date with the more recent events either:

Rep. Pitts Calls Arafat, Sharon to Come Back to the Table

Rep. Joe Pitts recently replied to a constituent's letter with a rather interesting position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon need to come back to the negotiating table. There's just one problem. Arafat has been dead since 2004 and Sharon in a coma since 2006.

The out-of-date letter was posted on the blog Mondoweiss by journalist Ian Rhodewalt. His father, a resident of the 16th district, wrote a letter to Pitts in 2011. His response came last month, and included this description of Pitts' stance:

"With the global war against terrorism, it is now incumbent on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasir Arafat to clamp down on Palestinian extremists that have perpetuated violence and to restart a peace process that has collapsed."

Oops.

At least they're not going to walk out of negotiations this time.

[alfred russel]

It looks like post 9/11 we had our most intelligent discourse. Apparently debates on whether to nuke Mecca if terrorists come back, exclamations of "f Bin Laden" and "f Saddam", and spontaneous "USA! USA!" chants are as smart sounding as we get.

[CountDeMoney]

True, I only went GOP in 2011 but now in 2012 we're on an uptick.

Heh, gay minority said "we".

We can be whatever we want.

That's adorable.  I bet the GOPtards will think so when you show up at the RNC in a sequined Speedo and feather boa to show off your GOP Pride.

[garbon]

True, I only went GOP in 2011 but now in 2012 we're on an uptick.

Heh, gay minority said "we".

We can be whatever we want.

That's adorable.  I bet the GOPtards will think so when you show up at the RNC in a sequined Speedo and feather boa to show off your GOP Pride.

I'm unlikely to appear in Florida. The humidity might make me sweat threw my chiffon.

[Razgovory]

True, I only went GOP in 2011 but now in 2012 we're on an uptick.

Heh, gay minority said "we".

We can be whatever we want.

That's adorable.  I bet the GOPtards will think so when you show up at the RNC in a sequined Speedo and feather boa to show off your GOP Pride.

Just saw a video of some pastor in NC talking about how we should put all garbon-Americans in camps with electric fences in between rants about Obama.

[CountDeMoney]

Just saw a video of some pastor in NC talking about how we should put all garbon-Americans in camps with electric fences in between rants about Obama.

Yeah, saw that one last night.  Definitely raising the tolerance bar for North Carolina pastors. 

[Admiral Yi]

I expect a deal deal of the difference is explained by geography.

[CountDeMoney]

I expect a deal deal of the difference is explained by geography.

I think they just try to outdo one another on local cable access. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Latest exhibit:

Representative Daniel "This is not a scientific survey, it's a random survey" Webster.

[DGuller]

Latest exhibit:

Representative Daniel "This is not a scientific survey, it's a random survey" Webster.

When viewed in context, it's not stupid at all.  It's downright evil and petrifying, for me personally.  This gem was dropped in support of gutting the government agency that collects all sorts of statistics, and whose value is immense.  It's like filth like this are actively trying to sabotage the country in every little way they can, because they figure that the more ignorant the country is, the more it's likely to benefit them politically, short term and long term.

[Martinus]

The stupid should form their own party - they would win all the elections.

[DontSayBanana]

Did they all hire the same speech writers in 2001?  Because that's just freaky.

Anyway, all this shows is that the grade level of the speeches has gone down.  It doesn't indicate which speeches are being analyzed, so it doesn't tell us whether their own intelligence is in question, whether the conflicts in Congress have led to congressmen and congresswomen "talking down" to perceived inferior colleagues, or that this is simply an effect of greater populism on the part of congressmen and congresswomen (I suspect a 60/40 mix of the latter and the former).