Anti-Intellectualism... from Intellectuals

So, yesterday my boyfriend and I had dinner with my extended paternal family. Conservatives, all of them. There are many many things I overheard (but luckily the topic of abortion was never raised, at least not within my earshot. Yay!), but one of the big things I heard was my mother and grandmother discussing how great Sarah Palin was and how you didn't need to have attended Harvard Law school to be a good president.

And I must say, I agree: Harvard Law isn't a requirement. After all, I'm planning for one of my presidential votes sometime in the future to go to a Poli Sci major at my own school, which isn't Harvard (yeah, I have a friend who wants to run for president. His blog is linked in my sidebar). But being well-educated is necessary. Sarah Palin attended five different schools before she finally got her degree, in Sports Journalism. Her major's fine, I don't care, hell, I'm an English major. But five different schools? My boyfriend has attended three. I love him, I think he's smart, but would I want him as President? Or very very close to becoming President? No. (And he's said before that if one of us should have to be the President, it should be me. Which would be fucking terrifying, but I agree. I'm the politically-oriented nerd, he's the somewhat-apathetic geek.)

We have had eight years of a President who doesn't read newspapers. Who can't pronounce certain words, and makes up his own (and not for humor either, and not when socializing* with friends.) My mother loved him, because he was such a regular guy. Everyone always talks about how he'd be great to have a beer with (which is idiotic, he's a recovering alcoholic for Pete's sake).

But Bushie graduated from Yale. He has the education, just not the smarts.

Obama has the smarts and the education. A few weeks ago, Renee posted this video of Jay Smooth explaining why people should vote for Barack Obama. It's awesome. People should not be looked down upon for their intelligence. They should be applauded for it. Unlike Bush, Obama had nothing handed to him. He got through college and law school on his brains and his work ethic. He was no legacy.

Look, there are times when I don't want to think. When I want to watch stupid movies or read stupid YA lit or fashion magazines just so I can relax a bit. Most of my favorite TV shows to not require a lot of input from me, brain-wise. (Or that's how it's been ever since Veronica Mars was cancelled.) And I'm guessing that Obama and Joe Biden have those moments too. But most of the time, they're smart. Biden's been a senator for years, he knows politics. Being a 'Washington Insider' should not be a bad thing, it means you know what's going on. Obama was a community organizer, a law professor, a state senator, and a US senator. That, to me, makes him seem damn smart.

Sarah Palin? Well, she was a PTA mom and a mayor and a one-term governor. And my mother said last night that she knows what Palin could do as president, because she knows what she can do. Oh my God. First off, my mother was in Phi Beta Kappa at a big state school. She lived in France for a year. She was a paralegal for a major national corporation for years. And yes, for the past eighteen she may've been a housewife, but she still has more real-world experience than Sarah Palin. She actually reads newspapers, for one. She's traveled a lot more. And yeah, there are times when she can be ditzy ("do we go towards Toledo or Youngstown to get home from Independence? Toledo, right?" would be among the most memorable, keep in mind that I was seventeen then and had never ever driven on the turnpike myself), but I never doubt that she is intelligent. Palin, I do doubt. (Oh, and my mother is married to a former lawyer, now businessman. No one in my family is stupid. Hmm.)

Secondly, I would not want an inexperienced mother as president. Hillary Clinton, I'd've been fine with, had she been the Democratic nominee. Why? She was a lawyer for years, and a Senator since 2001. Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius, Dianne Feinstein**...they'd all be fine in my book. And maybe if Palin were to wait another fifteen years, until she's Senator Clinton's age and has been able to prove herself as a responsible knowledgable politician, she'd be a trustworthy President. (Though her views are still reprehensible to me.) And I know there's some societal sexism involved in why she and Obama are practically the same age and he's had more real work experience than her. But feminist as I am, it ain't okay to demur on qualifications and experience in order to get beyond societal sexism. What we'd have to do is get rid of the sexism first. Which Palin's policies wouldn't help.

And the idea of smart=bad? How did we get there? I know things. I don't apologize for that. I'm not a snotty bitch about it, but I'm not going to pretend to be dumb in order to be likeable. I can say, "no, you're wrong, Columbus was Italian, and by the way, Leif Erikson got to America first, and Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci didn't sail together; and the reason Ohio University was built between Chillicothe and Marietta was because Chillicothe was the first capital of Ohio when it was basically just wilderness" while still being nice. As I did the other night at break fast. I just don't think it's nice or fair to let people, particularly adults, carry on in their misinformation. Smart should equal good, people should want to be thought of as smart. And yeah, there's some bitterness there for me--I've always been teased about reading too much, about watching strange independent movies, about my large memory. And while I will consume some dumb stuff, I will not support anything which is against intelligence. We 'latte-sipping liberals' should not be looked down upon. We're not perfect, but at least we try to know instead of burying our heads in the sand.

But yeah, I want a guy who knows what he's doing. And that's Obama, with Joe Biden right behind him. Not John McCain (admittedly experienced himself, but very old) with Palin behind him.

More here.











*another thing that happened last night--I mentioned to my sister Catherine* that some of my friends were socialists. She asked, "what do socialists do? Socialize?" I explained that they were a political group and left it at that. As far as my sister's political beliefs go, she's going to have opposing forces pushing at her the rest of her life: me and Jenna* versus my parents. I don't want her to have to deal with the rift until she starts expressing an interest, which she hasn't yet. I learned about socialism in eighth grade, hopefully she will too, but then again eighth graders don't take the Ohio Proficiency Test anymore, which is why we learned different systems of government. Anyway, it was cute.
**my mother was shocked this summer when my maternal grandmother (who lives in California) admitted to liking Dianne Feinstein. It was a moment for the ages. By the way, I feel no worries admitting to liking Barack Obama among my California relatives, even the conservative ones. One more reason why Napa is my favorite place on Earth.