The Tea Party represented a populist revolt against what its activists saw as out-of-touch Republican elites in Washington. PhotoIt’s hard to know exactly when the Republican Party assumed the mantle of the “stupid party.”Stupidity is not an accusation that could be hurled against such prominent early Republicans as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root and Charles Evans Hughes. Rather than run away from the anti-intellectual label, Republicans embraced it for their own political purposes. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThere is no evidence that Republican leaders have been demonstrably dumber than their Democratic counterparts. Here’s the thing, though: The Republican embrace of anti-intellectualism was, to a large extent, a put-on.

Source: New York Times July 31, 2016 16:07 UTC