That's what Rove said when asked to describe the Democratic party's "base".
When I first read that in Lemann's earthshaking New Yorker Rove profile, I took this to be a version of David Brooks's fatuous latte libel.
But upon reading this, a much more sinister meaning comes to light. (After all, Rove was super up front about everything in the Lemann interview -- why would he be bothered to parrot Brooks?) Rather, Rove's point seems to be that nuances of policy are so hard to understand that you need a doctorate to sort good policies from bad. If you've got a doctorate, you can see that Democratic policies are good and Republican policies are bad; otherwise, you're vulnerable to propaganda. So Rove was in effect admitting that he doesn't need good policies when he's got good propaganda. -- Benj
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