Rich Miller (Capitol Fax) posts some great “Questions of the day” on his blog. He’s posting some cool stuff, which, in turn, prompts me to comment. I like the the comments so much (if I do say so myself) that I post them here as posts.

If I still had a radio show,. I’d use these posts as show prep.

[some may not know that WKRS decided to go toward a more "national" format, and that my show was one those dropped from the line up]

Rich’s question of the day is about Republican “Anti-Intellectualism.” Again, it is good post with many good comments. Mine is pasted below.
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Anti-intellectualism is an American phenomenon, and not a Dem or Rep phenomenon.

Note that we Americans are not anti-intellect (most respect intelligence and competence).

As a nation, we are (or at least were), anti-intellectual (”intellectuals” as a class). For the most part, this has served Americans well.

Though intellectuals on both sides of the aisle have some good ideas, as a class, their hubris has lead to many more policy disasters than successes.

Conservative/libertarian intellectuals give us lack of oversight (though Dems are mostly on the hook for keeping FNMA and FHLMC untouched), and their friends in the private sector give us CDOs, synthetic CDOs and Credit Default Swaps.

Next, banks and insurance companies across the globe, (most of whom only hire the top 5% of the class from the top schools) keep buying this financial toxic waste until it all collapses.

Liberal intellectuals give us forced busing, public housing and the Great Society, and end up with permanent underclass. Some of them even had the bright idea that we could lend them money to buy houses with no verified income or any money down.

These big brains (left and right)just brought down entire industries and economies (any one want to buy Iceland?). Some track record, huh?

It isn’t isn’t surprising that the article Rich posted comes from overseas. They have a long track record of putting trust in intellectuals and intellectualism.

Here is my view. The more of an “intellectual” one is, the more likely they are to allow their intellect to cloud their judgment. Any person (or intellectual class) who believes that their intellect gives them carte blanche to manage the lives of others is suffering from a moral and intellectual blindness so deep that it becomes a form of stupidity, regardless of IQ.