Q: How does the anti-intellectual presidency undermine democracy?
A: At the heart of democracy is the idea that citizens make civic decisions based on information. When presidents do not offer information, but instead offer only sound bites, platitudes, and vacuous slogans, citizens are ill-equipped to make those decisions. Even worse, they are persuaded to make decisions according to nonrelevant, tangential cues such as personality and partisan punch lines.
Q. Why do presidents generally prefer to appear less intellectual than they are?
A: Presidential communication these days is more about the insinuation of meta-messages, not what is actually being said. And the meta-message is authenticity. When presidents or candidates dumb down or oversimplify, they are essentially employing a rather insidious method of argumentation that goes something like this: "Never mind what I am saying, but know that you can trust me because I am like you. And because I mimic you, I must therefore be for you."
Q: Why do you date the birth of the anti-intellectual presidency to 1969?
A: In 1969, Richard Nixon created a White House speechwriting office, which in effect severed the functions of policy advising and speechwriting.
Read the rest of the answers from Professor Elvin Lim at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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