Writing in the WSJ, Mark Lilla describes The Perils of ‘Populist Chic’. He is specifically decrying the rise, and indeed dominance, of anti-intellectualism in the contemporary Republican Party:
Over the next 25 years there grew up a new generation of conservative writers who cultivated none of their elders’ intellectual virtues — indeed, who saw themselves as counter-intellectuals. Most are well-educated and many have attended Ivy League universities; in fact, one of the masterminds of the Palin nomination was once a Harvard professor. But their function within the conservative movement is no longer to educate and ennoble a populist political tendency, it is to defend that tendency against the supposedly monolithic and uniformly hostile educated classes. They mock the advice of Nobel Prize-winning economists and praise the financial acumen of plumbers and builders. They ridicule ambassadors and diplomats while promoting jingoistic journalists who have never lived abroad and speak no foreign languages. And with the rise of shock radio and television, they have found a large, popular audience that eagerly absorbs their contempt for intellectual elites.
There is little doubt that the last eight years have been marked by a lack of intellectualism from the GOP in government. Many (myself included, I have to admit) dismissed as unfair the notion that George W. Bush lacked intellectual curiosity back in 2000. However, it turned out to be quiet accurate. It is hard to look back on the Bush administration and point to any kind of consistent intellectual core. Instead, we have been treated to mostly simplistic patriotism and a great deal of fear-mongering. The closest thing to an intellectual thread has been neoconservatism, which has had its basic assumptions about the world works disproved by reality itself. Even in the Congress, the last leader who actually had any sort of intellectual foundation was Newt Gingrich.
I am not even sure where the intellectuals on the conservative side are these days. Of major columnists only George Will comes to mind, but he is hardly the future of conservatism given his age if anything. Krauthammer is likewise smart, but is heavily invested in neoconservatism1. I think, too, he gets caught up in his role as one of the analysts of the right on Fox News’ Special Report. Certainly, The National Review is hardly the magazine of William F. Buckley, Jr.–this is especially true in terms of the commentary one finds at The Corner (it is hard, for example, to see people like Mark Levin, Andrew McCarthy, K-Lo and Jonah Golderberg as the intellectual equals of Buckley, let alone the vanguard of a new intellectual conservatism). I suppose David Brooks may be the closest I can come up with at the moment.
In terms of pure populism and its importance to the contemporary Republican Party, the McCain campaign certainly contributed mightily. Palin’s whole “Hockey Mom” schtick and the elevation of “Joe the Plumber” to be a key symbol of the campaign both underscore this fact.
The real crux of the matter is how the GOP will respond to this defeat. At the moment many in the party seem to think that it is to be found in Palin. I am of the opinion that way lies long-term minority status. Indeed, many have argued and will argue that the reason the GOP lost is because “they weren’t conservative enough” but I am of the opinion that at the moment there is no consensus on what “conservative” means at the moment–and until there is some intellect-searching on that point, the Republican Party will remain in trouble.2
Update: Just to be clear, I am not saying that only anti-intellectuals vote for the GOP.
Sphere: Related Content- which, I do understand, will cause many readers to question his smartness [↩]
- Being pro-tax cuts and pro-life does not make for an intellectual core. [↩]
November 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
For me, this was the issue that I’ve had with the GOP. To put it in simpler terms, I was insulted by the fact that they appear to be saying that they prefer a base of stupid people. If not that, then they’d prefer to keep the voting populace stupid by making education look like it’s a bad thing. The whole “elitist” commentary to me has just left a bad taste in my mouth over the years.
Further, as you mentioned, I’ve said that the Republican Party has strayed too far from conservatism, but there seems to be some confusion over what conservatism actually is. When I say “conservative,” I’m referring to the Barry Goldwater brand. When my mother says conservative she’s referring to “moral values” and big government programs in the name of “national security.” (Yes, the quotes are intentional and meant to convey sarcasm.)
November 9th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I am not even sure where the intellectuals on the conservative side are these days.
How about Fukuyama? Or Amitai Etzioni?
November 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Come on, Etzioni talks about communitarianism, so he must be a socialist!
November 9th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
What do you think of Dinesh D’Souza?
I attended a debate of sorts between him and Patricia Ireland about 15 years ago, and I came away impressed by his ability to put “emotional” issues in a more rational context. I also enjoyed his appearances on Politically Incorrect.
He seems to have gone off the rails with his more recent writings, though.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
[...] HT: PoliBlog. [...]
November 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I think you’re onto something, but the rush to judgement on the GOP’s anti-intellectualism (if we can call it that - I have a hard time swallowing that pill, but will go along with the label grudgingly) has to be seen for what it is: a reactionary movement to over-intellectualism, and the polar alignment of universities with liberal democratic principles, to the point of open hostility to anything else.
I think it is quite possible to overthink and overeducate oneself; in completing my two graduate degrees, I met an awful lot of people who had no practical experience outside of the world of academia - although my wife’s experience getting her PhD in educational psychology provides a better illustration that I can come up with. She had to take multiple classes from a PhD who taught about primary education, but who had never spent a day as a teacher in a real elementary school. The guy got his undergrad, masters, and doctorate in education all back-to-back, and immediately went to work at a major university writing books about how teachers should teach 2nd graders - having never done it himself.
It’s largely distaste for academia without common sense that has driven the GOP to define itself the way it has. Personally, I don’t think a guy who has never taught a day in a primary school has any business writing books about it, no matter how many degrees he has. Education by itself is nothing; education coupled with experience in the world create a person who is fit as a public servant.
The problem is that for so long now, universities have been so rabidly liberal, pro-democratic party that it is hard, if not impossible, for a conservative to wedge his or her way into such a job. I really had to keep my political opinions a secret during my studies at USC; I have no doubt that my life would have been quite miserable if anyone found out I was a registered republican.
So, when it comes time for the conservative to go to the intellectual cupboard, the cupboard is bare; there is no place you can go if you are a conservative to earn a respectable degree without being a social outcast.
Perhaps it is not fair to use this incident to highlight my point, as it is a lone example - but during the 2004 election cycle, I made the mistake of putting a bumper sticker on my truck that declared my support of George Bush. I parked it in a University of South Carolina parking deck and went to class; when I came back, I found that my truck had been savagely keyed, the sticker removed, and the word “FASCIST” crudely etched onto my hood. If this is what happened at USC, in the south, I dare not think what must go on in the Ivy schools and the west coast. They might have hanged me.
Now, let me ask you, Dr. Taylor - why should I put myself, a person with conservative values, a person who fought in the Army and suffered greatly as a result, a person who loves his country and hates tyranny - why would I DESIRE to put myself in a place that is so openly hostile to me? Why would I want to go somewhere where my freedom of speech (putting a bumper sticker on my vehicle) results in vandalism that costs me lots of money to repair and offends me to my very core? What do I think these people have to teach me? What can I realistically gain from fellowship with peers who have so little respect for people with differing ideas?
The answer that I came up with is that college campuses are places for people who are young and naive, or old and out of touch (present company excluded; I’ve not made up my mind about you, as we’ve never met or had a real conversation with each other); they are not places for people like me, who respect an open dialogue and honest exchange of ideas, even if I disagree with them. They are places you go to conform to a standard, and that standard has become intertwined with liberalism and the democratic party. You go to the university to jump through the requisite hoops in order to get the diploma that gets you ahead; you don’t go there to learn anything.
I played the games that were required to get my degrees. But to be quite honest, I have little pride in them; I have much more pride in the fact that I paid for them by working jobs as lowly as picking up trash in the park, and by earning benefits from the VA through service to my country. Those things, I take pride in. But the two MA and MLIS I have, from the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina? To be honest, I’m not even sure where my diplomas are - packed away in a crate in the attic, I suppose.
So I can relate to the elevation of Joe the plumber. Maybe he doesn’t have a degree; I don’t really care. I respect people who know and have done honest work, and who can look me in the eye without a shadow of condescension. I take far more pride in having picked up trash than I have in my MA or my MLIS; at least the institution that I picked up trash for didn’t hate me.
The problem as I see it is that conservatives like me are unwilling to subject ourselves to the constant ridicule and barrage of insults that we take by coming out of the closet with our ideas on a college campus. Because of this, we don’t go to college campuses; and because we don’t go to college campuses, we are becoming less and less educated as time goes by.
I do think it’s a problem not just for the GOP but for America. At some point, our universities are going to have to disconnect themselves from politics and do what they are supposed to do: provide an impartial forum for healthy debate and education from a variety of political and philosophical models, not just Liberal and Secular Humanism; Socialism; and the democratic party.
If that doesn’t happen, we’re going to see the polarization of America widen, deepen, and become more dangerous because conservative thinking will lag behind liberal thinking, but that will not equate to the destruction of conservative thinking; all that will happen is the conservatives that we elect (yes, we will still elect them) will be less educated.
I can’t see how this could be healthy for the union.
November 9th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
If it wasn’t for his uncompromising atheism (totally indigestible to the GOP’s evangelical base), I’d wonder why Christopher Hitchens isn’t more popular among conservatives. Yes, he endorsed Obama this time around, but that was largely McCain’s fault from what I could tell. Sarah Palin was the final nail in McCain’s coffin as far as the Hitch was concerned.
PS @MJ: D’Souza? You have got to be kidding. The man routinely riddles himself into pretzels without even trying, then denies his self-contradictions. If the goal is to bring the GOP some fresh intellectual firepower, I don’t think he’s the best man for the job.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Len, for what it’s worth, I’ve often referred to Hitchens as the Jerry Falwell of atheism– as his (lack of) religion is just about as charming. At least, it’s always been that way for me. Basically, they seem to be two sides of the same coin.
Captain, I’m not sure if what you experienced can so much be attributed to universities and college campuses as it can be to the popular political opinion of the time. Trust me when I say that had I put a Kerry-Edwards ‘04 sticker on MY car, it would likely have been met with the same fate. There are extremists on both sides– which is why I avoid putting bumper stickers on my car. (That, and they just look tacky.)
I’ve never noticed any real political bias one way or the other in the majority of the classes I’ve taken, but then I’ve not been looking for one. I suppose that if I were, I could find one. And it should be noted that some noted conservatives have taught at universities (or even headed them up). In fact, I believe Tony Blair (still a George Bush fan) is supposed to be teaching at Yale right now. I could be wrong.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Come on, Etzioni talks about communitarianism, so he must be a socialist!
Yeah, right!
I always thought of that moralistic streak of his as being slightly “conservative.”
November 10th, 2008 at 11:50 am
True, I have a bad habit of overweighting my personal experiences when framing my ideas and theories about what is happening in America. I can’t speak for everyone and am really only theorizing what other conservatives might be thinking.
I grant that my personal experiences really only apply to me, and can only be used as empirical evidence of my own experience. These experiences can’t speak for all.
I can, however, speak for myself; and it was my experience throughout my education that, in general, conservatives got the short end of the stick. The only profs that I had who were conservative that I knew were conservative were either part time or untenured.
On the other hand, the majority made their political affiliation and personal philsophy very well known. They didn’t just wear it on their sleeve; they wore it on a T-shirt on their chest. They constituted the overwhelming majority, and when it came time for me to pick an academic advisor, I always had to make the painful choice of choosing who would be the least grating on my nerves; I never got to pick someone I actually liked or looked up to as a mentor. This was especially true for my history degree, and I had to bite my lips until they bled on more than one occasion.
If you had a different experience, it is not terribly surprising. Like I said, I can only speak for myself. I am sure that if I have been put off by the notion of higher education, there are other conservatives out there who have been equally put off. If I am completely alone in my distaste, I would be shocked.
So my theory is that one of the reasons for the GOP’s “anti-intellectualism” has been the alignment of universities with the democratic party and with political and social philosophies that don’t sit well with conservatives and republicans.
It’s just a theory.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
In my own experience–a combined 10.5 years as an undergrad and a grad in polisci departments, I never had any especially bad experiences in regards to anti-conservatism. a few comments here and there, sure, but nothing of great significance. I can think of only one blatant political statement by a prof, and it was when I was a grader in grad school and a prof made a strident pro-abortion statement.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Well, you have more experience than I do in the matter. Like I said, my experiences are only proof of what I experienced.
The liberal democratic principles that a lot of my profs adhered to seldom were manifest as blatant statements from the podium; their affiliation came out in more subtle ways but to me was quite transparent.
And certainly, when you look at county-by-county electoral maps, you find that anywhere you have a major college or university, you have a blue county. Look at Georgia and Athens-Clarke County. It’s a tiny island of blue surrounded by a sea of red. The presence of UGA is the only thing that separates this county from its neighbors in any meaningful way.
I’m just suggesting that there might be a perception of hostility to conservatives, that is keeping some from spending time and money studying for advanced degrees. If our university system is the source of our intellectualism (or is a major source of it) and it is primarily populated by liberal democrats. . . I’m just guessing that’s going to keep some conservative republicans away.