Of Donald, Dunces and Dogma

By CHARLES M. BLOW
NYT

I told myself that I wouldn’t be dragged into Donald Trump’s “birther” cesspool, yet here I am.

It became too much to ignore when he climbed to the top of the Republicans’ admittedly weak field of presidential contenders and serious minds began to suggest that there was some virtue in his opportunistic vicissitudes about the president and his policy.

Let me be clear: Trump’s little game doesn’t reflect American ideology as much as it exposes the flaws within it.

It further exacerbates a corrosive culture on the right that now celebrates the Cult of Idiocy — from Glenn Beck to Michele Bachmann — where riling liberals is more valuable than reason and logic, and where intellectualism and even basic learnedness are viewed with suspicion and contempt.

(More here.)