The Evil Petting Zoo

So, back in spring of 2007, Howard Dean appointed Leah Daughtry, a Pentecostalist minister, as chief executive of the Democratic National Convention. Daughtry's appointment is obviously part of an effort to bring more evangelicals to the Democratic party, and I honestly consider the effort to bring in evangelicals who believe in social justice a good thing. I am, of course, a little pissed off by the distribution of official party packets that run counter to the party position on abortion and same-sex marriage, but by now, I'm pretty much used to the DNC talking out of both sides of their mouths in an effort to get the evangelical vote.

No, what really bothers me is this:

Dancing down front, in an aisle between pews, was a woman in an elaborate dress with a lace corsage whose breast cancer had been eradicated, Daughtry had said, through the prayers of her church sisters: “The eggheads will say her chemotherapy worked, but everyone who uses chemotherapy isn’t cured.”

The what?

“The intellectuals, the egghead types — Pentecostalism is incomprehensible to them. They don’t understand the spirit-driven. I can make the trains run on time, and they have a hard time reconciling that with my religion.”

For the love of God, can we please, please put a stop to this anti-intellectual bullshit? I was tired of it when right-wing talking heads pushed it as a reason why you shouldn't trust those high-and-mighty scientists. I was sick of it when Chris Matthews painted college-educated Americans as "the other." I could've vomited when Paul Begala willingly gulped down the Kool-Aid.

But now it's a hand-picked member of Dean's efforts to ensure victory for Obama in '08 who's pushing the idea that a reliance of science and reasoning is wrong and abnormal. I'm getting really goddamn tired on the DNC thinking that the best way to win over voters is to imitate the GOP.