WhatFinger


Generally speaking, the more education a person has, the more likely he or she will be to vote Republican

We Ain’t so Dumb



One of liberals’ favorite attacks on conservatives is to label us as “dumb.” We’re simple-minded, or we only see in black and white while the world exists in shades of grey, or—in the case of Rush Limbaugh fans—we’re “mind-numbed robots.”

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When President Reagan took office in early 1981, liberals dismissed his views of less government, lower taxes, and more military strength. On several occasions, liberal commentators and politicians called Reagan, among other things, “dumb as a stump.” But of course President Reagan has been vindicated on all fronts. The American economy took off, median family incomes grew after being stagnant for years, and the combined economic and military strength of the United States, along with our allies, brought down the seemingly invincible Soviet Union. For eight years President Bush was the “dumb as a stump” poster boy for the American left. President Bush also believed in lower taxes and a strong defense, especially as he prosecuted the War on Terror. The great irony in this liberal name calling is that the opposite is actually true. Generally speaking, the more education a person has, the more likely he or she will be to vote Republican. But it’s not just an educational issue; it’s a depth and quality of thinking issue. And it’s the liberals who usually can only see in black and white, who usually have simplistic, emotion-based (rather than logic-based), views of the world. Let’s look at three examples: 1. The Reagan military buildup. When Reagan took office, liberal orthodoxy held that strengthening America’s military would only provoke the Soviet Union. Liberals believed that the best way to deal with the communists was to disarm ourselves, thus proving that we meant them no harm. In fact, declassified Soviet KGB documents have shown that the Soviet Union would have been happy to attack America and her allies once they were confident that we could not adequately defend ourselves. Reagan’s views of “peace through strength” proved correct. Reagan proved that—as counter-intuitive as it may seem—often the best way to prevent war is to be eminently prepared for it. 2. Gun control. Liberals believe that outlawing guns will make the streets of this country safer. No guns, no gun violence, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Handguns have been banned from the UK for over a decade now, and that country has seen its violent crime rate climb every year since, until it has now surpassed the U.S. in per capita violent crime. In the meantime, we have witnessed a liberalization of gun laws here at home, with nearly every state allowing lawful citizens to right to own—and often carry—handguns. And what has happened to the crime rate here? It has dropped precipitously. Not only that, but the book The Bias Against Guns shows quite clearly that there is a direct and powerful correlation between legal gun ownership and lower crime rates. Again, counter-intuitive but true. 3. Taxes. Liberals believe that in order to increase government revenue, you must increase taxes. Makes sense, right? But once again, not true. When government lowers taxes, businesses and individual citizens have more money to spend. As they spend this money, they demand goods and services, which means someone has to provide these goods and services. This spurs business activity and provides jobs to people, who now also demand goods and services—and who also pay taxes, which they weren’t doing while unemployed. Taxes are lower, but more people are paying taxes (the tax “base” has expanded), which means more government revenue. Despite President Reagan lowering the top tax rate from 70 to 28 percent during his presidency, federal tax revenues doubled from 1980 to 1990. Compare this to the current administration’s failed attempts to pull the country out of the current recession through government action. So the fact is, few things are as simple as they first appear. Oftentimes the truth is just the opposite from what your initial, knee-jerk reaction tells you it should be. And despite the liberal name calling, it is conservatives who understand this. It is conservatives who are able to look past the surface to the underlying concepts, who are able to see past the emotion to the logic and then take an intelligent, informed stand on the issues. Whenever I hear some liberal call me dumb, I think of Shakespeare’s words, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”


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Mike Jensen -- Bio and Archives

Mike Jensen is a freelance writer living in Colorado.  He received his M.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he wrote his first book, Alaska’s Wilderness Highway.  He has since published Skier’s Guide to Utah along with humor, travel, and political articles for various magazines and newspapers.  He is married with five sons, and spends his free time at a remote cabin in the Colorado Rockies.


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