Thursday, November 11, 2010

Asymptote


A corollary to one of my main themes -- the dumbing down of the Republican party, its aggressive and proud anti-intellectualism, its turning to people like Sarah Palin and Jim Demint and Rand Paul -- is that it's a path to destruction. I've focused more on the extent to which it'll destroy us all. But maybe it's possible that it'll destroy them before they destroy the rest of us. A writer on a conservative site is worried about exactly that:

OK. So the Republicans might have offended some small academic elites across the country – does it matter?

I think it is too early to say whether it matters directly in terms of demographics and electoral success. The highly educated are a tiny percentage of the country, of course.

However, there is another side to the challenge: one of governance and policy. A party needs a well-educated echelon – call it an elite – to formulate policy to deal with complex challenges. Without the philosophical and academic achievements of the likes of Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman and James Q. Wilson, the Reagan revolution would not have been possible...

... the well is drying up. So few of the experts in any given field will in the future be Republican. That is an enormous problem. The intellectual resources directed at finding conservative answers to today’s problems are weakened year by year. If not quite critical yet, thanks to the efforts of an older generation of Republicans, the ramifications of this trend might be dramatic.

Finally, there is a question of identity: If the conservative movement – for whatever reasons – is unable to comprise those who seek knowledge, to improve their own situation and that of their community, what kind of movement is it?


I think the guy has a point. In a race to the bottom, it's possible they'll run themselves into the idealess irrelevancy of gut feelings and anti-educated beliefs before they run the country into the proverbially and recently recounted ditch. One might hope.

Meanwhile, since so many have so misunderstood so many of my points for so long, let me say once more: I rue the loss of seriousness on the right. I believe in a two-party system, and wish to hell we still had one. One comprised of two conscientious parties, each trying (as best as anyone can, however imperfectly, given the inherent paralysis that has overtaken our system) to provide actual solutions to actual (as opposed to imaginary) problems. We'd be immeasurably better off.

But now it's only the shadow of the smell of the smoke of a long-gone pipe dream.

5 comments:

  1. Indeed it is. In fact, to have found that picture, I, of course, spelled it correctly. Don't know how my brain failed when I titled the post, but I'm sure there'll be many more instances.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeez-Us Sid, could you be even more of a Surgeon???
    So you Mis-pelled someting, I do it all the time, It's not Miss Crump's 6th Grade, Your not gonna get a mean frowny face..
    Unless you "Schwack" the Common Bile Duct...ewww thats ugly
    And just cause you found a pic doesn't mean you spelled it right, just the other day, I was Googling "Hot Box" and was greated with 4 million hits for "Hot Boy"...
    Your Human, so relax and smell the Namenda...

    Frank "Spelling's Overrated" Drackman...

    PS My Bush, I mean Obama Tax Cuts just about gonna pay for my New(Used) 08'ZO6 Vette with the 6 Speed and tuned(loud) exhaust...:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, Frankie, coming from you spelling advice is gratefully received.

    I'd love a ride in the Vette. I recognize my car by the smell of its clutch as it self-immolates. Were I an anesthesiologist, I could afford a new car. But I'm saving spare change and I figure I can replace the clutch in January, unless "the market" continues its slow realization of the damage about to be done to the economy by the teabaggers. It's more than an intellectual asypmptote that's in play...

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  4. OMG, Frank and Sid are on an asymptote. Could the 'force' becoming into an alignment? Sid, trash the clutch and dip into your penny collection and get a Tesla. Gotta love you guys. I need an alter ego too, which one of your 'sturgeons' will comply?

    ReplyDelete

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