Liberal=Smart, Conservative=Dumb

Clayton Cramer has a couple of good posts (here and here) that take on a Seattle op-ed column. The op-ed writer followed the Florida hypothesis (discussed here) which views cultural liberalism as necessary to economic growth.

Academic towns like Austin, do tend to be liberal. But that is not proof that conservatives are dumber than liberals. For one thing, the prevailing liberalism of the academy tends to turn-off conservatives and persuades them not to pursue careers in higher education. As David Brooks wrote in the Atlantic recently

People want to be around others who are roughly like themselves. That's called community. It probably would be psychologically difficult for most Brown professors to share an office with someone who was pro-life, a member of the National Rifle Association, or an evangelical Christian. It's likely that hiring committees would subtly -- even unconsciously -- screen out any such people they encountered. Republicans and evangelical Christians have sensed that they are not welcome at places like Brown, so they don't even consider working there. In fact, any registered Republican who contemplates a career in academia these days is both a hero and a fool.

In addition, we should be careful not to confuse credentials with intelligence. Disciplines are not equal when it comes to the rigor of its curriculum and the quality of its students. Is the holder of an Ed. D. necessarily smarter than an engineer with a bachelors? Is a BA in history less learned than an MBA?