Why only stupid people like far-right Republicans

AMERICAblog reader BeccaM weighs in on my earlier post about Rick Santorum bemoaning that smart people will never support the religious right or politicians like him.

Let's take this the next layer down: These are precisely the reasons they -- the wingnut religious right extremists -- are deliberately trying to undermine our schools. It was no accident that a man like Santorum referred to going to college as snobbish.

Stupid, mis- or uneducated people are more easily manipulated. You can tell them two entirely contradictory things or stuff that literally makes no sense whatsoever and there's no critical thinking part of their brain that'll kick in and say, "Hey, this is ridiculous."

You can be proven to be a corrupt con-man and still the stupid people will send you their money. All you have to do is promise them eternal bliss after they die -- and the best part is you never have to prove you can deliver.

You can tell the stupid people that cutting taxes increases revenues and they'll believe you. You can imply that oil, gas, and coal reserves are effectively infinite. You can tell them the reason their lives are sh*tty isn't because the rich people are grabbing all the money, but because people whose lives are even sh*ttier are actually to blame.

They want a vast pool of extremely stupid people. Or as I prefer to call them, sheep.