Anti-intellectualism in America

Over 40 years have passed since Richard Hofstadter published his landmark study Anti-intellectualism in American Life, and the trend is alive and well, thank you very much. Sarah Palin is the new champion of the style, a style that equates education with "elitism" and being out-of-touch with "common folks" and "the real world." It's extraordinary and depressing that in 2009 nonsense still gets a following and a press, but there you have it. Jefferson's dream, and the dream of many since -- and let's not forget that our Founding Fathers were, well, educated -- of democracy fueled by an educated electorate is as unrealized as ever.

Here's a recent plea, by Oregon's senator Wayne Morse, a passage that ends my 1989 one-man play American Gadfly:

MORSE
So if you asked me, Wayne Morse, name
the one thing in our country that you
think will do more to strengthen
American foreign policy in the next
half century, you might be surprised
at my reply. I would say, Do something
to protect the educational standard of
American boys and girls. Do something
to protect American brain power.
Because the only sure and lasting
defense of peace is a highly educated
and enlightened citizenry.

A highly educated and enlightened citizenry! And we get Sarah Palin instead.