Congressional IQ’s
By Wink
In my August 28 article I mentioned (in passing) that the IQ of the average U.S. Congressman is 20+ points lower than that of the average U.S. Senator.
My opinion on this has not changed, although I constantly wonder if I am being too generous to the Congressmen. Another case in point…..
Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins said at an August 19 forum in Kansas that the GOP needs “to find the great white hope” to help the party succeed in the future.
The exact quote is “Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope, I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington.”
I laughed my butt off when I heard this.
I have no reason to think Congresswoman Jenkins is a racist. I still don’t think so. She just tossed out this racist statement because she is stupid. Just another example of how stupid your average congressperson is.
This is not a Democrat/Republican issue. When it comes to congressional IQ’s, ‘average’ is about as good as you can hope for. What we usually get is ‘below average.’
‘Great White Hope’ is not just a figure of speech. It is not about a knight in shining armor.
When a black boxer named Jack Johnson destroyed the (white) world champion Tommy Burns on December 26, 1908, racial animosity among whites ran so deep that the call went out for a “Great White Hope” to take the title back and return it to where it supposedly belonged, with the “superior” white race. Johnson was crudely caricatured as a subhuman “ape.” As the title holder, Johnson had to face a series of fighters billed by boxing promoters as “great white hopes.”
Slavery had been outlawed for about 40 years by that point, but white America still had a vision of how a ‘negro’ should behave.
Jack Johnson just did not fit that mold. He wasn’t subservient, he was loud and proud. He wore fancy clothes, drove fancy cars and (no doubt worst of all) dated white women. Also, he beat the crap out of all the white guys he faced.
Can you guess that he was not popular in white America? Good for you!
Can you see how the phrase ‘Great White Hope’ might seem a touch racist?
Anyway, I don’t expect everyone to know where that phrase came from, I just expect a little common sense. When talking about inanimate objects, feel free to say ‘great white.’
“Those are great white sheets, Marge!”
With regard to living creatures you can even say…
“Moby Dick was a great white whale.”
But when you are specifically talking about humans, as Congresswoman Jenkins was, you should know better than to say ‘great white’ anything. Pretty dumb.
I promise to keep beating this drum. I love to show off how stupid congress is, both individually and collectively.
Feel free to contribute evidence that senators are morons also. I am well aware that they screw up too, but you will need mountains of evidence to bring them within 20 IQ points of The House.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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