More evidence: Republicans are stupid.

Republicans are stupid. That wasn't always the case. There was a time that they were fairly reasonable people, but that was a prior lifetime. There was actually a time that they read serious authors, often wrong, but still serious thinkers. Now they lap up the likes of Coulter and Limbaugh and O'Reilly. They have become intellectual bottom-feeders.

And the result is the disaster sitting in the White House instead of sitting in the dock where he belongs.

The most recent evidence that Republicans are stupid is a recent poll that shows that 60% of Republicans think free trade is bad. Considering that free trade is one of the easiest positions to understand, this shows a real effort at stupidity. Perhaps they are waiting for Jesus to tell them what to think. But he just didn't concern himself with such mundane things as productive labor and free exchange.

If free trade is bad for you, then is it bad across the board? Or is it only bad if the people you trade with are a different color? And if the trade is bad then precisely why are you doing it?

I'm a recovered Republican, someone who once thought the party believed in freedom but I have since seen the light and realize they are actually worse than the Democrats -- and that took some effort. But I know that if I'm faced with an exchange, where I'm worse off, I don't make it. You have to mind-numbingly dumb to go ahead with an exchange that you know will make you worse off.

Even children understand that. Ten minutes on a playground will show you that they simply aren't going to exchange something of higher value for something of lower value. Children are smarter than Republicans. No surprise. I've met some plants with higher IQs. Every since the backwater revival tents emptied out, so that the Boobus Americanus could follow Jerry Falwell's advice (get saved, baptized and registered to vote), the intellectual level of the Republican Party has gone about as low as is possible, without given credence to a new theory of reverse evolution.

People don't make trades that make them worse off, at least not regularly, and certainly not over an extended period of time. So how is free exchange of goods, over imaginary lines, a bad thing? And, if it is bad to trade with Lower Fastigonia, then isn't it bad to trade with Alabama? If we are supposed to be self-sufficient -- an old Mercantalist fallacy -- then why is trading with people across the continent good, but trading with Canada bad.

It makes far more sense for someone in Arizona to trade with Mexico, which is a short skip away, than it does to trade with Maine or North Carolina, which take several days transit. If free trade is bad wouldn't our lives improve if we restricted trade between the states? Or even between the cities?

Why not go for broke and have the ultimate self-sufficiency plan and forbid all economic exchange whatsoever. If you can't grow it yourself that's just too bad. It's good for you to have fewer choices. What sort of Neanderthal comes up with this sort of logic?

I suspect that the Republicans, who have reincarnated the Know-Nothing movement with such genuine lack of knowing anything, would argue that when they themselves trade it is good. But when others trade it is somehow bad. It's like a curse or voodoo. If they do it then we will be harmed. This logic is big with Republicans these days. It's the argument against gay marriage: "If gays get married it will destroy our marriages."

These Republicans say they would vote for any Republican who promised to restrict foreign goods coming into the United States.

Well, any idiot, even a Republican, can stop foreign goods from coming into the United States right now. Just don't buy them! The only reason people sell us things is because we buy them. If no one went to McDonald's it would close. If no one bought foreign goods then no one would import them. If you want to make yourself poorer that is your right. No doubt you will earn a place in the Kingdom of Heaven through your self-imposed poverty. More luck to you. If you want to chop off fingers or poke out your eyes I wouldn't stop you. You have the absolute right to inflict as much harm on yourself as possible -- right up to suicide. What bugs the hell out of me is that you are so damned intent on dragging everyone else down with you.

Why is it that something so simple as freedom just can't make its way through the thick skulls of the drooling cretins that besmirch the party of Goldwater and Reagan? It really is simple. If you don't like a TV channel, change channels. These days you don't even have to get off your fat ass to do that. You can use the remote. If you don't want to buy foreign goods, then don't buy foreign goods. Why is it necessary, when you don't want something for yourself, you then assume that Big Brother must step in to prevent other people from having that choice?

It really isn't hard. It is called freedom. Think back, try real hard to remember. It was a word that Republicans once pretended to believe in. But that was before the "Christian nation", "war on terror", "compassionate conservatism" bullshit arose. Freedom is a really radical idea. Let me try to explain how it works.

If you don't like same sex marriage then marry someone of the opposite sex! Wow! Talk about simplicity. Just leave other people alone who differ with you.

If you don't like what an author writes, don't read it! Don't ban the book. Don't burn the books -- or the authors either for that matter.

If you don't like what is on the TV then turn it off. I know it is your only source of information. You can do without. And if you really want to be uninformed turn on Fox News. You'll love it. But leave the programs of other people alone. Just because you wallow in ignorance doesn't mean everyone has to.

If you don't want to buy foreign goods then don't. If other people want to purchase such things leave them alone.

In the end it comes down to two things. The first, is mind your own damn business. The second is leave other people alone. Radical isn't it. Just stop sticking your ugly puss into the affairs of other people. Your constant nagging and nannying of others is boring, intrusive and offensive. And if you keep it up then don't be surprised if the reaction is to slap restrictions on your liberties and choices. At some point the person who keeps nagging gets smacked in the jaw and they deserve it. If you don't want my preferences imposed on you (and I already know you won't like them) then don't impose your preferences on me. Fair enough.

And for those of you who can still think, the remnant, the few -- I suggest reading The Four Bonehaded Biases of Stupid Voters. You do remember reading, don't you?