Resolved: Republicans think you're dumb

Recently, Barack Obama made the entirely uncontroversial point that American kids, in order to be more competitive globally, should be learning other languages. Conservatives, of course, crapped themselves. I won't link to the myriad idiotic complaints by the righties, but the Carpetbagger Report and Smintheus of DailyKos have a few. I do want to especially highlight John Derbyshire, however, who wrote that "The cold fact is that absent exceptional circumstances — the most common of which is, total immersion at a receptive age — not many human beings can learn another language." Does Derbyshire just believe, then, that Americans are stupid compared to Europeans? After all, half of Europeans are fully bilingual.Smintheus says this is a sign that Republicans have become "Know-Nothing Republicans." I think he* has it wrong,... [read full story]