Because modern American conservatism is strongly aligned with anti-intellectual sentiments: the pathos of nationalism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, "traditional

Because modern American conservatism is strongly aligned with anti-intellectual sentiments: the pathos of nationalism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, "traditional views" on religion and the role of science, and a craving for simple categorization into Manichean good or bad, male or female, okay-to-say or not-okay-to-say, us or them, yours or mine. Onto this we lay a matrix of Ayn Randian property-rights-fetishists and aging anticommunists & libertarians (the previous generation's right-wing intellectuals, now bought off or shouted down), as well as the remnants of the the-Confederacy-should-have-won enthusiasts, dressed up in strict constructionist clothing. Driving the parade is an endless stream of corporate lobbyists trying to get a return on investment in the simplest way possible. These sorts of stereotypes are observations about the net behavior of large groups of conservatives rather than being ubiquitous in individuals, but occasionally I talk to a certain flavor of conservative friends about such topics, while taking care to avoid being dismissive of their chosen tribe. They become viscerally infuriated not so much at the positions, but at acknowledgement of the nuances ("But they're Muslim. They're at war with us. They say they're at war with us.") and the notion that improving everyone's situation ("How the hell can you say it doesn't matter whether they deserve it") could be a goal of all of us. They are looking for politics to simplify, not to complicate, their thinking. It's not complete ignorance of the tricky bits, it's a desire to disregard them. This is not the stuff that a career as a lifetime thinker is made of. The letters 'PhD' stand for 'Doctor of Philosophy', and appreciating complexity has to be a part of extended research in any field. An explicit disavowel of 'experts' or or 'academics' or 'scientists' is quite common on the right, usually with airquotes to indicate that the speaker disbelieves these people's expertise and doesn't consider them worth the speaker's time, because the speaker is busy Doing things (necessarily simplifying reality) and they merely Think about things. The best of the GWB Administration: "The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore." He continued "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.""