Fear and ignorance

There's a couple of themes I see from today's conservatives. They are fear and ignorance. Think this is the ramblings of an old liberal? Well, here's the proof.

Fear.

Congresswoman and former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) accuses the Obama Administration of Muslim influence. She aims at Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There is no credible and direct link between Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood. The only direct connection is that she is a Muslim.

Now Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich defends Bachmann and McCarthyism.

Ignorance.

University of Arkansas study shows conservatives engage in low effort thinking.

Texas Republicans oppose the teaching of critical thinking. They later backtracked but some Republican had to type this in the platform so it was definitely on the radar for them. It's not a typo.

Fox News viewers are the less informed than people who don't watch news. (Fairleigh Dickinson University study.)

Conservatives get facts wrong on foreign policy. Dartmouth University study.

Does this mean I think conservatives are dumb? No. But what drives their thinking are fear and ignorance. Don't think. React. That's no way to make decisions.