SIMPLICITY

Perhaps because they have such narrow minds, wingnuts desperately need to believe that there are simple and definitive answers to all our problems. In economics, it's the miracle of Adam Smith's "invisible hand;" in morals, it's Leviticus. In America, this trait has been around for decades and I've tracked down the political history to these two wingnut icons:

Goldwater:

"A lot of my enemies call me simple. The trouble with the so-called liberal today is that he doesn't understand simplicity. The answers to America's problems are simple." Memphis, 1964.

SOURCE: Hofstadter, page 124, paperback edition.

Raygun:

"For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to the complex problems which are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is, there are simple answers, they just are not easy ones." California Gubernatorial Inauguration Speech, (1967-01-05).


Both remarks contain an implicit criticism of the authority of expertise and promote a sort of ignorant populism.