It’s been a trend for years, perhaps starting with W., perhaps even earlier with Dan Quayle, but whatever the case, why have we become comfortable with — nay proud of — the fact that we are all becoming a real-life Idiocracy?

If you’re wondering how we got this close to Vice President Sarah Palin, it’s because of the all-out attack on intellect. In the few days since the debate, I’ve heard nothing but praise for Sarah Palin’s shrewdness, blithely side-stepping questions she didn’t want to answer, sticking to her guns (and the outline in front of her) so as not to get herself into any hairy situations.

Really, she didn’t do anything but duck and dodge, proving once again that she doesn’t have what it takes, and that many Americans aren’t smart enough to recognize it.

Why should it be OK that much of what she says doesn’t make any sense? Why should it be OK when she says that it doesn’t matter whether Global Warming is a natural phenomenon or man-made? Wouldn’t it be easier to solve the problem if we knew the cause?

By refusing to answer questions during the debate about changes in the bankruptcy laws and McCain’s healthcare plan, she demonstrated that she doesn’t even have a grasp on what her own campaign plans to do, much less the issues as a whole. I’m middle-class, just like she proclaims to be, yet it seems I understand what’s going on better than her. Perhaps it’s all getting lost in the thousands of newspapers she reads each day.

I’m glad to see that many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters didn’t fall for the rouse, jumping on her bandwagon simply because she has two X chromosomes. Her nomination isn’t a step forward for feminism. The way I see it, McCain picking her is a farce and an insult to all women who want better for their gender.

Palin has proved time and again that she’s not a fighter for women’s rights. She’s a puppet, closely following a script handed to her by her handlers from the Republican National Committee. Any time she’s forced to go off script she simply winks at the camera then mumbles incoherently about being a maverick hockey mom from Alaska.

This isn’t the America I love and believe in.

The America I love values education, experience and intelligence.

The America I love doesn’t dismiss ideas as unpatriotic and elitist simply because they’re different.

The America I love would see “folksiness” for what it is: a misguided attempt to connect with those of us in flyover states by people who have never been here and don’t understand us. It’s almost like McCain’s campaign people looked at all the best midwestern caricatures from television — Woody Boyd, Rose Nylund, James Hobert, Dave Nelson — and said “Let’s tell Sarah Palin to act like that, the voters will relate!”

Those of us who are capable of rational thought don’t relate. I just hope there are enough of us to get our country going in the right direction.