Last updated on March 19th, 2024 at 01:00 am
The word “stupid” has a broad range of applications, but it generally means a person lacks rudimentary intelligence or the ability to reason. It can also imply a congenital lack of capacity for reasoning, or a permanent state of daze or slow-mindedness. However one defines or applies the word stupid, they can hardly think of the word without directly relating it to Republican supporters; especially those who are not part of the wealthiest one-percent of income earners.
Over the past week while encouraging people to vote in the midterm elections, it became apparent that the level of stupidity inherent in people inclined to support Republicans is beyond comprehension. In fact, as an educator, it is frightening that so many people of voting age lack the fundamental reasoning ability of a second-grader and are even less-informed about basic facts than a kindergartner; exactly the type of voter Republicans depend on to win elections. It really does not matter what issue or policy the typical GOP voter either supports or opposes, they base their position on whatever absurdity their favorite Republican candidate espouses; regardless of reality.
One of the most bizarre ideas held by Republicans living in drought-stricken California is that the lack of rainfall responsible for, among other things, a non-existent snowpack in the mountains and dried-up wells is due to the Clean Water Act and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a reminder to morons, a drought is an extended period when a region receives consistently below average precipitation; or for Republican voters, there is no rain. Still, local Republicans like Koch-teabagger Jeff Denham have convinced ignoramuses that the reason it has not rained in California for the past three years is because the EPA regulates the amount of toxic chemicals the oil industry pours directly into the air and water. Unbelievably, more GOP voters are convinced that eliminating the EPA will bring back normal rainfall to the region and create millions of high-paying jobs to boot.
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Another bizarre notion Republican voters embrace is that keeping the minimum wage at poverty levels, or eliminating it altogether, will put more money into working people’s pockets and eliminate poverty. What is stunning, is that those most in need of better wages believe Republican lies that the reason they are poor is not due to low wages, but because of “socialist” workplace regulations such as overtime pay, 40-hour work weeks, OSHA, and of course the dreaded minimum wage. This insanity accompanies a firm belief that cutting retirees’ Social Security and giving their retirement accounts to Wall Street will create millions of jobs as well as eliminate struggling senior citizens living off their Social Security pensions need for food stamps to survive. In fact, a fair number of Republican voters, including white seniors, are convinced that Democrats and President Obama are responsible for their poverty because they oppose privatizing Medicare; something Republicans convinced them is a Marxist plot to destroy America’s storied “free market capitalism.”
The so-called ‘values crowd’ are clearly stupefied into supporting Republicans’ economic policies in large part due to their belief that Democrats and President Obama are waging a war on marriage that only electing Republicans will remedy. They cannot, and will not, believe that marriage does not need protecting because no-one is attacking it, or that anyone in their right mind cares on way or another if a man and woman chooses to marry. The same evangelical crowd is convinced by Republicans that President Obama has robbed them of their religious rights and more than a few are preparing for the looming government assault on their churches. As an aside, the religious Republican supporters who missed eighth-grade biology class, or their Sunday School lesson covering the Genesis creation account, really need to comprehend that a zygote is not a living, breathing human being worthy of constitutional protections they are unwilling to extend the woman carrying the single-celled organism.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
