Comes to education

Sadly, it appears that the central issue in our coming election will come down to a matter of intelligence. We are faced with a substantial number of voters, hopefully fewer than half, who are committed to ideas that are obviously untrue (“stolen election,” sure!) and who accept an outrageous evil clown figure as fit to be president. How did we reach this sad state of affairs?

There is a hint in Tim Alberta’s “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,” the theme of which is how a string of sleazy preachers conned evangelicals into supporting the Republican Party and later Donald Trump. (Some heroes who preached the real Gospel are included.)

What is significant about Alberta’s report is how gullible the bovine flocks of evangelicals were. They would believe any silly crap some preacher told them and think it was the word of God. They showed absolutely no critical-thinking ability. In the recent Iowa caucuses, unfortunately, evangelicals provided most of Trump’s votes, and 70 percent voted for Trump in New Hampshire. Some have proclaimed him sent by God!

Beyond evangelicals, the largest demographic voting Republican has been white, with no college education. The strongest predictor of how states vote has been the percentage of college graduates in the population. More degrees, more Democrats. Prosperous college grads who used to vote red have shifted blue in substantial numbers. White working-class folks, many of whom have lost manufacturing jobs, have shifted red, clearly voting against their self-interest.

A recent posting on Facebook reminded us that “A national IQ test will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.” Wonder if we can break 100?

Let me note that Catherine Lamb of Little Rock recently wrote on a similar theme.

ROGER A. WEBB Little Rock