Originally Posted by Relentless

You do realize the wealthiest people in this country are ultra-liberal intellectuals, right? Gates and Buffet are awfully wealthy and it would be hard to argue they lack intellect.

Neither conservatives nor liberals are inherently more intellectual or more successful. In a sane era the two differ on many things but find ways to compromise for the greater good. That's why we live in a country that has a strong military AND environmentally protected national parks, rather than a country that has only one or the other. Things go poorly when either side deems the other to be less able as a gross generalization rather than remembering that some liberals and some conservatives are unsuccessful idiots, while others from either philosophical viewpoint can be plenty successful and quite smart.

Backward poor uneducated Midwestern conservatives are just as unsuccessful and unintellectual as backward poor uneducated liberals from coastal States. The same parity exists between successful intelligent liberals and conservatives. What does tend to differ demographically more than anything else is their starting status at birth. You'll find people who got a strong head start tend to be the same ones who conservatively favor the status quo... while people who started off in the penalty box tend to want to shake up the way the system works.