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Notes -
Have you considered that maybe the Republicans are indeed dumb?
In the sense that everyone in politics is dumb? Yes. Do I think that their voter base being less college educated means a whole lot? No. The Republicans were just as dumb back when they were barely winning the college educated vote and running Romney. I mean, nominating a painfully patrician rich vulture capitalist for President one election cycle after the great recession who was also weak on the GOP's signature issue (It's hard to argue against Obamacare when there's a state level equivalent with your name on it.) is self-evidently dumb, one would think.
The actual politicians, staffers, and even primary voters are more educated than the average American. Even the Republican primary electorate is (or at least was circa 2018, and I doubt that the primary coalitions have changed that much since then) majority college educated with a relatively small four point gap between the two parties (This is dwarfed by the education gap between primary voters and the electorate as a whole.).
The current Trump administration coming up with these policies are all college educated, usually hold graduate degrees, and disproportionately hold them from the Ivy League. Unless level of education and the prestige of the degree-conferring institution are inversely correlated with intelligence, these people probably aren't dumb. Catch is, you don't have to be dumb to be wrong, and that's what makes Hanania's whole "elite human capital" argument so grating.
Hell, I think a small genre of argument here on The Motte is "intelligence is no guard against foolishness; in fact, it only lets you rationalize your idiocy better."
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