In reference to a joke Sarah Palin made about Joe Biden's age, Joy Behar began to say, "The fact that she's so dumb..." Behar was quickly met with boos from the audience and her co-hosts. She then changed her words to it's "politically unastute" to make a joke about someone's age when your running mate is older.
As a therapist, negative labels like "dumb" and "crazy" have been purged from my mind. We're taught to frame things in non-demeaning, constructive ways. I have a tight relationship with reframing.
There has been a lot of positive and negative reframing going on in this presidential election, particularly when it comes to dumb and smart. Intelligence is being reframed as uncool and unnecessary by the extreme Right. Anyone who can express his/her ideas is considered elite. A Ph.D. from Harvard is seen as a negative thing. Anyone who is aware of the world around them is an out-of-touch egghead. They're saying intelligence isn't something the average person relates to.
The problem with this is "average" people are smart and it's arrogant and demeaning to suggest otherwise. And in this election, smart ideas about how to deal with the economic crisis will be welcomed by Americans.
Things like energy and persistence are important, but look at it this way: Would you rather have an energized horse pulling an empty cart or a cart filled with ideas?
The word dumb escaped from Behar's mouth in a frustrated attempt to cut through the spin. The boos need to be louder when intelligence is spun into a bad thing.
