The Right's attempt to be more "Intellecutal"

According to the latest work by Tim Stanley in the UK newspaper, the Right in America does not have an anti-intellecutual tradition.  According to him, conservatives read books and have their own intellectual foundation because they are able to read books.  This is true most liberals would concede that the Right is able to read books and have their own following.  The problem is that the Right will only read a selective set of books for fear that their own ideals may be challenged.  As a result, it is not suprising to find the works of Freidman on this socalled list of works that all conservatives should read.  Friedmann's work is currently present in our economic disaster of the last few years.  At the saem time, the real criticism that needs to be addressed is not the conservatives are not capable of reading, it's that many tend to cling to ideals that have long since been disproven by historical, eonomic, and scientific facts. 

One of the best examples is the Theory of Evolution.  Long been able to stand up to the continued testing of the scientific community.  Instead, conservatives continue to use religion to keep people in their place forgetting that it was Marx who called religion the opiate of the masses.  Indeed, they are clever.  Let us not forget the continued claims by former President Ronald Reagan that we could cut taxes and increase defense spending and demand a balanced budget.  Reagan never submitted a balanced budget he so continuously demanded from Congress.  He left office slightly more dotty than when he entered, and the nation with a larger deficit that his predecessor. What is clear from the conservatives is that while they may have an intellectual tradition, it is a tradition that does not foster nor challenge their followers to better themesleves.  Instead, it rehashes settled matters on subjects decades settled and attempts to use historical facts to tweak their slogans.  While other traditions have done the same, this new conservative Tea Bag party has taken the cake.  The fact that they believe the Boston Tea Party was a protest against paying taxes remains absurd.  It was a protest about who would levy the taxes, the colonial legislatures or the Parliament.  This is a bit of a difference. 

In the end, it has never been doubted that the right could read materials.  It is their small selection of materials that remains in question. They have chosen the proper sychopants.  However, what remains clear is that most of them have not read The Wealth of Nations yet they beleive they have enough information.  An they lack the trust of the people to make the laws for themselves.  I say this because they still believe that government is the problem forgetting that we are the government.  Yet they do not shrink form using the tools of government to give tax breaks to the rich in the "belief" that the rich create jobs, nor do they have a problem with the government intervenening in the economy as long as business is not regulated,  They have done so well on this subject that they have created the greatest division between rich and poor in US history.  What much of the so called intellectual right chooses to research, it is clear that they need to do more research.  Perhaps if they did their homework there would be less criticism.