with a form of social class warfare ... The nation is divided between
the wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and the
oversophisticated, overeducated, oversecularized denizens of the
coasts. What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a
disdain for the educated class as a whole
(Brooks 2008)Boxing Obama
[O]ur most brilliant presidents often work hard to seem publicly
dumb in order to avoid the stain of elitism.
Lim, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential
Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush, 2008Lim based the observation above on his study of presidential speech
between 1913 and the end of the George W. Bush administration. His
quantitative analysis of the presidential speeches provided some surprising
observations:
Between 1913 and 2008, the length of the average presidential
sentence fell from 35 words to 22.
Between the advent of broadcast media and George W. Bush’s
last day in office, sound bites declined in length from 42 seconds
to 7.
In the first decade of the 1900s, presidential speeches were
pitched at a college reading level; by 2008, the level was closer
to eighth grade.Where and why the overt dislike and distrust of intellectualism originated
is a question that requires more close study and thought than can be taken
up in this volume. What can be said with certainty is that in the current
day, politicians and media both employ anti-intellectualism to appeal to
what may be the larger portion of the voting (and money-spending)
population.
This was especially the case during the George W. Bush administration.
“As he takes to the road to salvage his presidency, Bush is letting down his
guard and playing up his anti-intellectual, regular-guy image” (Baker