The New Know-Nothings

Let them drink crude

Krugman:

What I mean...is that know-nothingism--the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise--has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: "Real men don’t think things through."

This is Krugman's way of saying "they take pride in being ignorant," and it extends way beyond the latest round of nonsense about offshore drilling (I guess the wingnuts think offshore platforms magically build themselves and instantaneously materialize at the exact spot where they're needed)...personally, I trace things back to one Ronald Reagan and a media that enabled his particular "insight," which, to draw an analogy, was not unlike someone insisting that their firm grasp of simple arithmetic qualified them to claim expertise in calculus.

Or, to put it another way--"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

But--if the American public is going broke, well...that might make for a different story. I guess we'll see.