Does democracy mean that the lowest common denominator prevails? This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. They were, ahem, cough cough, lest we forget ... they were INTELLECTUALS.
When the United States began its national existence, the relationship between intellect and power was not a problem. The leaders were the intellectuals. … It is ironic that the United States should have been founded by intellectuals; for throughout most of our political history, the intellectual has been for the most part either an outsider, a servant, or a scapegoat.
Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
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