XPost: talk.politics.misc, aus.politics

In 2004, I was on leave from the Marines and went to Ohio to visit a
girl I was dating. It was right before the election between George W.
Bush and John Kerry, and the Buckeye State was the swing state to decide
it all.

During a get together with several of her friends, some started
remarking how it was unfeasible that Bush might win again. Why? Because
he was “stupid”, “dumb” and “unintelligent.” One person even remarked
about his low SAT scores and that meant she was clearly more qualified
to be president than him.

I was a bit baffled. Yes, Bush did the whole laid back, slow talking
Texan thing and had a whole bunch of Archie Bunker-style malapropisms.
But if you actually paid attention to politics, Bush was one of the most cunning and ruthless politicians ever to run for office. He could (and
would) kneecap opponents by any means necessary. Look up John McCain in
the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary or Kerry and the so-called
“Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”

Of course, Ohio and the election went to Bush. Democrats pulled out
their hair and wondered how someone so “dumb” could be president. Twenty years later, here we are again, not learning the lessons of the past.

Democrats still have an air of superiority which leads them to vastly underestimate their opponents. This attitude has led to many baffling
election losses in which they appear more inept than the party over
which they claim intellectual superiority.

Like many liberals, I have seen just about all the Jordan Klepper
vignettes that he has done for “The Daily Show,” going to Trump rallies
and finding some poor souls to bait into saying incredibly stupid
things. Of course, it is all edited and packaged to seem like everyone
there is a nitwit, and it works. Klepper, along with other similar acts
like Walter Masterson and The Good Liars have carved out a nice living
making MAGAs look stupid.

This act is nothing new. Jay Leno did it with the average American on
the streets of Los Angeles. Jesse Watters did the same for Fox News,
targeting liberals. And now, with TikTok, a whole slew of interviewers
create videos intended to portray whole groups as stupid. Whether it be Americans, college kids, women, MAGA supporters or football fans, it
works because it makes the viewer feel smarter. The problem is, we all
buy it and then assume that this extends to everyone, in the group,
including Donald Trump.

As liberals, we need to be honest right now. We have treated everyone
from Trump to Bush to Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to Lauren
Boebert (R-Colo.) as imbecilic, then watched as they won elections and
took control of the country. Maybe we need to start accepting that
Republicans are just better at winning elections, and that we
persistently underestimate them.

One of the reasons they do this is because of education. Yes, a higher percentage of Democratic voters have college degrees than Republicans,
which used to not be the case. But most Republican politicians, despite
their attacks on higher education, came through higher education. Bush
went to Yale and Harvard. Trump attended Penn. Vivek Ramaswamy went to
Harvard, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to Princeton and Harvard, Peter Hegseth
to Princeton and Harvard, Vice President JD Vance to Yale, Sen. Tom
Cotton (R-Ark.) to Harvard and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to Yale and Harvard.

Even more Republicans went to top-notch state schools and have advanced
degrees in law, business, policy and STEM fields. And while excelling at
those schools, they learned a valuable lesson. Only they themselves need
to be the smartest guys in the room in order to win elections.

They are correct. By utilizing culture wars, populism, religious
differences and faux patriotism, while building a distrust in education
and government, Republican politicians are using their own educations to control government.

It is about time Democrats shed the dumb Republican stereotype and start treating their political opponents as equals, if not as their
intellectual superiors. Maybe then they won’t be stuck on the sidelines trying to explain to their voters why they keep losing to the party they
look down on.

Jos Joseph, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, is a master’s candidate
at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-dear-democrats-stop-thinking-190000023.html

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