Liberals have the rest of us figured out – We’re stupid

Thanks to Ann Althouse at the University of Wisconsin law school for pointing this out –

Here's her full posting – A Madison liberal struggles to understand the 2010 elections and runs to the classic liberal explanation: The people are stupid.

Here is the actual article she mentions, along with a short excerpt -

The triumph of stupidity

In my questions to Franklin, I noted that the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich.

Franklin, perhaps a bit too candidly, conceded the point. "I'm not endorsing the American voter," he answered. "They're pretty damn stupid."

"Thank you, professor," I responded. "That's the answer I was looking for."

Frankly, it's an answer embraced by many people I know. One of my Isthmus colleagues sent me a study showing that Dane County, which bucked the trends on Election Day, is by far the most educated county in the state. "When conservatives cut support for education," she mused, "they do so to keep people dumb and their own interests in power."

Wow. That's cynical. And, I think, ridiculous. Still, if there was ever an election that deserves to employ the word "stupid" in its analysis, this one is it.

Here's Althouse' reponse on her blog (by the way she voted for Obama, and I think regrets it now) which you can access at the first link above –

Welcome to my world: Dane County, Wisconsin, home of people who tell themselves they are the smart people and those who disagree with them must certainly be dumb. They don't go through the exercise of putting themselves in the place of someone who thinks differently from the way they do. But how would it feel to be intelligent, informed, and well-meaning and to think what conservatives think? Isn't that the right way for an intelligent, informed, and well-meaning person to understand other people? If you short circuit that process and go right to the assumption that people who don't agree with you are stupid, how do you maintain the belief that you are, in fact, intelligent, informed, and well-meaning?

What is liberal about this attitude toward other people?

Exactly. And I find that my liberal friends (many of them anyway) often cannot explain their own positions. It's just assumed that you if disagree – if you just don't "get it" you're either feeble-minded or self-absorbed (or both).