Ignorance is bliss

This article in Pulse Magazine about a Sixth Congressional District Republican Candidate forum is pretty damn scary. Sure, when you take into consideration the fact that the candidates are Senator Michelle Bachmann, Rep. Jim Knoblach, Rep. Phil Krinkie, and apparent Tancredo-clone Jay Esmay, you know it's not going to be a Mensa meeting. But still, the sheer ignorance of some of the things that came out of these candidates' mouths is shocking.

Unsurprisingly, Michelle Bachmann wins for the most idiocy. Apparently, she just assumed that suburbs in Europe are the same thing as suburbs in this country, ranting about how since the rioting in France was in the suburbs, out-of-control upper-middle-class youth who were sick of playing Halo on their Xboxes were responsible. Wow. I honestly don't know where to begin with that one. How about a discussion about the birth of suburbs in the U.S., driven entirely by the Interstate Highway program, contrasted with the fact that suburbs in European countries are, oh, just hundreds of years old and have nothing to do with white flight like here. Or how about her later comments on the "Muslim faction" that is taking over France, when the rioters said nothing about Islam. We could merely start with the fact that Bachmann has almost certainly never been out of this country, but her ignorant bigoted supporters would probably see that as a good thing.

What bothers me most is not that these politicians were willing to simply make things up in an attempt to win over the crowd; politicians do that all the time. The worse thing is that these Republican candidates are probably happy with their ignorance and have no desire at all to find out the truth behind the most pressing issues of today. Good luck, sixth district voters!