“And that’s precisely the sort of query made by defenders of racial profiling.”

Then let these “defenders of racial profiling” also try to understand what I go on to say about sensitivity and defects of character. Even if a stereotype reflects some true generalization, there may be nothing “hunky dory” about using it to try to justify racial profiling.

And by the way, if you’re going make shallow comments, please don’t attach such a good name to them.

And that’s precisely the sort of query made by defenders of racial profiling.

As long as the red is neck and the victim does not require a green card, the prejudice is hunky dory.

Isn’t It Surprising When You Meet a Liberal Who Admits To Being Self-Deceived?

Intellectual competence, consistent ethics (particularly those influenced by the teachings of Jesus), and vibrant faith are a rare combination among political leaders of either party, largely because the process of getting elected to office (at least as a governor or U.S. senator, let alone at the national level) over time weeds out those who are either unprepared or unwilling to compromise their ethics in favor of the party line (or the interests that fund the party).

Huckabee was not the Republican nominee for President of the United States because his ethically consistent actions as a governor were inconsistent with the political ideology of the opinion-leading “elites” of the Republican party. McCain won the nomination because he was willing (and amazingly enough, able) to renounce (or ignore) past actions he had taken on the basis of intellectual and ethical grounds and “toe the party line”, and those opinion leaders which eight years before had nothing good to say about him were suddenly convinced that he was their best chance for defeating the intellectually competent, ethically consistent, professed follower of Christ that was bound to be the nominee of the other party.

I often wonder if the result would have been different had mainstream Evangelicals in the Republican primary paid attention to their own values, rather than the verbal diarrhea of their leaders who base their choices on the godless philosophy of Ayn Rand rather than the values in the Sermon on the Mount.

This stereotype is recognized by more than just those elitist Yankees who write for The Atlantic.

Allan writes in her very next sentence:

Levy recounts [Mike Huckabee]‘s annoyance at journalists who dismiss his 13 years of executive experience in order to cut straight to the question of whether or not he believes in evolution.

So the “some people” that are surprised by Mike Huckabee’s intelligence are those journalists that Mike Huckabee is annoyed by.

So are there actually no correlations between “intellectual competence” and the combination of “rural Arkansas habits” with “outspoken evangelical views”?

Even before the facts come in, isn’t it somewhat plausible to suppose that there are correlations between “intellectual competence” and educational achievement, and that there are further correlations between educational achievement and the combination of “outspoken evangelical views” with “rural Arkansas habits”? Is anyone prepared to deny that there are such correlations?

We may dislike these (and similar) correlations, and it may be that we ought to be sensitive in speaking about them. It may even show a defect of character to be “caught off guard” because one’s social expectations were based on such correlations. But none of this means that such correlations are illusory.

Cross-Posted at First Thoughts