It’s evident from his vitae that, in terms of intellect, he lives in a closed world of Austrian economics. In terms of religion, It’s not clear from what he says–or from his vitae–that he’s a fundamentalist. He does hold an M.Div. from Yale, which doesn’t typically produce scary people whose eyes glow in the dark. (Neither does American U., where he earned his PhD in economics.) But Brat does advocate the old, outworn, and many times disproved Weberian notion of “Protestant ethic as the path to success” line. Maybe it worked for 19th Century Prussia–but it won’t work in a diverse, multi-cultural society like ours.
I’m not even sure whether he’s being intellectually dishonest when he makes statements like these, which the average, rational person sees as outrageous. So yeah, maybe Brat really thinks the US is like North Korea.
I think the more likely explanation is that he’s just engaging in a little partisan demogoguery. Nowadays, in order to sign on as a Republican, you have to utter or write at least one dunder-headed anti-Obama screed every 24 hour news cycle. This, for them, is what passes for principled opposition.
Anyway, the problem I have with erstwhile smart people like this is that they seem to become so ideological brittle that they can neither understand nor tolerate honest differences of opinion in what they consider their areas of expertise. I’ve known some very intelligent people–thankfully they’re rare–whose education actually tended to cement their ideological predispositions. And they will say almost anything to defend their themselves.
This, I think, is what we have here. And not a good person to send to Congress. Makes you (shudder) miss Eric Cantor.
