I remember being shocked when I read Molly Ivin’s assertion that Bush, George W. Bush, is not stupid. I believe she said he was a mean, petty, small-minded little man, but not stupid and it was a mistake to characterize him as such.

I’ve decided that I think I mean something different when I call someone, The Decider or anyone else, stupid. I consider Bush to be a stupid person, but I don’t mean that he necessarily lacks intellectual ability. He may or may not have average intelligence. And while I seriously doubt he would score above average on an IQ test, that’s not really my problem with him.

We’ve all known people who weren’t that bright. But, that doesn’t make them into the sort of person that George W. Bush, or a lot of conservatives, are. I don’t think all conservatives, including Bush, are incapable of intellectual or coherent thought. I just think they aren’t deep thinkers.

I know two conservatives. Okay, I know more, but I’m using these two as examples. One is a long time friend of mine. We went through college together and are now studying for the GMAT together. She’s going to do fine on the test, so she’s not stupid in that way. The other is a coworker. He has worked for 30 years in the computer field, keeping up with the ever changing technology. Again, not a stupid person in that way.

However, neither spends much time thinking.

If Bush were actually “intellectually, low-IQ” stupid, I would expect him to ask for help. Say, with the climate crisis issue. Maybe he could call up Al Gore and have him explain it to him. If not Gore, then someone with the knowledge and understanding to advise him.

But, since Bush isn’t a deep thinker, he just doesn’t care. He’s content to ignore it, especially when people tell him that addressing the problem would hurt his financial portfolio (for most cons, it’s that it will cost jobs). For a “shallow thinker”, that’s all he or she needs to know. One quick “reason” why they don’t have to or shouldn’t care about something and they’re good to go.

I think this is a major difference between people who end up being liberals and people who end up being conservatives. I think we liberals and progressives are just naturally deep thinkers. We ponder. We seek knowledge. We consider all sides of an argument. We reevaluate even long-held beliefs. We question. We want to understand. We aren’t always content with the first answer we get or the first conclusion we come to. We are just naturally, basically interested in the world and those around us. We just want to know for the sake of knowing and once we know something, we want to really understand it.

I think that trait is what leads us to be liberals. I think “conservative values”, especially how they are expressed by this administration, only hold up when you don’t really think about them. Poor people are just lazy. Environmental regulations hurt the economy. We are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Any of those suppositions – such bastions of conservative “thought” – fall completely apart in the face of facts, evidence, and just plain old common sense. But, you have to think about it. You have to actually consider the statement, gather the facts, and then actually think about it. Even just for a moment.

I think conservatives – “shallow thinkers” – just don’t spend that moment of thought. And thus, we’re in the mess we are in today.

And that’s the sense in which I think Bush, those who support him and those in his administration are “stupid”.