November 05, 2004
Anatomy of an Idiot
I noticed with considerable amusement yesterday that according to Jane Smiley, 58 million American voters are complete idiots. Though apparently the victim of social promotion's influence on math skills, she is, of course, referring to the 59,459,765 Americans who chose to re-elect George W. Bush by a comfortable margin and a statistical majority over John Kerry.
In her vile, headlong rush to condemn the majority of American voters who voted red instead of blue, she seems to get her facts just a bit backward.
According to Smiley:
The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862-Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children.
Now, if history hasn't completely reversed itself recently, wasn't William Clarke Quantrill a Confederate raider?
According to
PBS, the strongly pro-Union stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas, had 183 (again, social promotion does not help math skills) of their predominately Republican citizenry slaughtered by pro-slavery Democrats. These same Democrats, of course, went on to found the original Ku Klux Klan.Of course, we are the party revelling in the "ignorance in America" so I guess she didn't think we'd notice her attempts to play fast and loose with the facts...
Us being idiots and all.
Note: This post got a mention by Glen Reynolds in an update of the Jane Smiley backlash over at Instapundit.com. Thanks Glen! Frank J. at IMAO picked it up as well. Thanks, guys.
