A Confederacy of Dunces: Repeat

It was believed that the bottom was hit 47 years ago, when Barry Goldwater ran for president of the United States against Lyndon Johnson. The father of the conservative movement, who helped carry Reagan to the presidency 16 years later, was viewed as a dangerous extremist who would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. But at least the Arizona senator was a man of integrity, and if he was a conservative, at least he was not a demagogue.

This year, things have changed a lot. And not for the better.

This time, the current leader of the Republican challengers, Rick Perry, boasts of his stupidity in language worthy of the charlatans who sold snake oil throughout the West at the end of the 19th century. “[Massachusetts] passed state-run health care, they have sanctioned gay marriage, and they elected Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Barney Frank repeatedly. … Texans, on the other hand, elect folks like me. You know the type, the kind of guy who goes jogging in the morning, packing a Ruger .380 with laser sights and loaded with hollow-point bullets, and shoots a coyote that is threatening his daughter’s dog.”

Whenever he can, Perry boasts of his dreadful grades. In high school, “I graduated in the top 10 of my graduating class — of 13,” he tells 13,000 students in Lynchburg. It almost makes you end up missing W. He was a mediocre student, but at least he was at a university of high intellectual level: Yale.

The New York Times recently noted, dismayed, that the American educational system was in bad shape and that it was rather inappropriate to boast of being an ass, as if it were a high distinction. Up to now, we were used to seeing male and female politicians bemoan the educational level of their compatriots. A new era is opening — where dunces delight in their ignorance. In the words of The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, the Republicans have become the “[h]ow great is it to be stupid?” party. Michele Bachmann, another star of the GOP, is totally clueless, while Sarah Palin is in another category altogether. She is “the mother of stupid conservatism,” maintains Dowd. It is this that gives Barack Obama every chance.