The Tea Party Convention’s Bipolar Logic

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Earlier I pointed out a Washington Post op-ed making the Internet rounds in which Gerard Alexander condescendingly characterizes all liberals as condescending. It’s a sentiment that other conservative talking heads like George Will and Charles Krauthammer have echoed.

But the tie between conservatives and condescension got even more pronounced – and decidedly more bizarre – at the Tea Party convention taking place in Nashville this weekend. There, Tom Tancredo declared that Barack Obama was elected by “people who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English.” So, the overwhelming majority of liberals and independents who turned out in historic numbers to elect our president did so because they are blindingly stupid. Like, can’t spell their own names stupid. I’m not sure whether Tancredo is suggesting that I’m stupid because I’m liberal; or that I’m liberal because I’m stupid.

Tancredo also insisted that we need a civics literacy test in order for people to be eligible to vote. This is, of course, the kind of racist logic that was outlawed in Supreme Court decisions like Guinn v. United States in 1915 and Smith v. Allwright in 1944; in addition to numerous pieces of voter-related legislation, including the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 (which notably, received a 25-year extension granted by President George W. Bush in 2006).

The irony of all of this is that Tancredo’s characterization of all liberals as illiterate fools who don’t deserve a place in our democracy was just a warm-up before the Tea Party’s main act, Sarah Palin. There, the party-goers showered “Run, Sarah, Run” cheers on a woman who needed to have explained to her – multiple times – the difference between North Korea and South Korea. A woman who was unaware of the distinctions between World War I and World War II. A woman who, despite having studied journalism, could not name a single publication she reads regularly. A woman who couldn’t describe who we were fighting in Iraq, even as her son was being sent there. This is the woman picked to lead a movement claiming that liberals are too stupid to vote.

I suppose that’s a special kind of logic that I’m too intellectually feeble to understand, what with my brain being crippled by liberalism.

Slate’s Jacob Weisberg hits closer to the truth by suggesting that we’re all to blame for our collective push toward childish ignorance:

A lot more people are watching American Idol than are watching Glenn Beck, and our collective illogic is mostly negligent rather than militant. The more compelling explanation is that the American public lives in Candyland, where government can tackle the big problems and get out of the way at the same time. … The politicians thriving at the moment are the ones who embody this live-for-the-today mentality, those best able to call for the impossible with a straight face. …

Our inability to address long-term challenges makes a strong case that the United States now faces an era of historical decline. Our reluctance to recognize economic choices also portends negative effects for the rest of the world. To change this story line, we need to stop blaming the rascals we elect to office and start looking to ourselves.