Michelle Bachmann: A Case-Study in American Anti-Intellectualism

Michelle Bachmann disgusts me. I’m sick of pretending otherwise. Perhaps it’s the fact that her husband runs two Christian counseling centers in Minnesota that attempt to “cure” homosexuality. Perhaps it’s the fact that she signed the “Marriage Vow” printed by a prominent conservative Iowa group called The Family Leader. It stated that slavery, while horrible, was cool because they at least grew up in a two-parent household with a mother and father unlike African-Americans today.  Perhaps it’s because she stated in 2006 that she pursued tax law, despite the fact that she hated it, because her husband told her to and the bible says that wives must be submissive to their husbands. Perhaps it’s the fact that she said on national television that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation, all because some lady at the debate said so. Also, we shouldn’t get mad at her because she was just “passing on what she heard”. Sorry Michelle, my bad. We shouldn’t have expected you to give facts or anything.

Regardless, what really bothers me about her is the fact that she still has a ton of supporters, despite most of what she says can be disproved with a quick Google search. For instance, if Michelle Bachmann comes up to you and says the founding fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery, you Google that and say FALSE. Once bringing this to her attention, if she comes up to you again and says that John Quincy Adams totally counts as a founding father, you Google that and say NO. You let her know that being a child at the founding of our nation does not qualify you as a “founding father”.

But despite all of this, her supporters keep marching on. She won the Iowa Straw Poll, and many believe her comments about the HPV vaccine. It frightens me that we as Americans so despise intellectualism that we have gone the complete other way.  I remember in 2008, when Barack Obama was getting serious heat for being “too intellectual” and that he “wasn’t someone you could see yourself having a beer with.” Maybe I’m different, but I don’t want to see myself having a beer with my president. I really couldn’t care less. I want my president in 2012 to be someone who is capable of fixing the economy and unemployment as well as maximizing social justice for all people living in America. I’m sick of seeing stupid politicians that are hailed by the populous because they’re “just like us”. When in fact, it’s all an elaborate act to play into our anti-intellectualism. They’re politicians, and they certainly know their base. And they know their base is full of stupid people.

Most, if not all, presidential contenders are millionaires. They are the elites, but yet they profess anti-elitism. It seems that the only way to be a “man of the people” is to be the village idiot.

But hey, maybe it’s because they were shot up with the vaccine in their sleep.

Gingrich…I knew it.

Photo Credit: TheRichest.com & MotorAuthority.com

Tags: christianity Founding Fathers gingrich homosexuals HPV intellectualism Iowa marcus bachmann marriage vow mental retardation michelle bachmann slavery vaccine