I've been saying that the Republican party began an official campaign to dumb down America in 1983 during Reagan's,second run for office. They made as part of their campaign slogan,"Democrats are efite intellectuals that are out of touch with the average American" . They conflate intelligence to a vice and just short of evil. It was the time of the urban cowboy era. Things common were elevated, it became cool to be ignorant. By the time we reached the 2016 election, ignorance had been elevated to a virtue by Repubs. Just witness the post-fact movement, the number of Repub congressmen openly opposed to education, and particularly college education, and the opposition to science (eg. Flat - Earthers). The "base" who voted for Trump in this last election are typical of those that see "good ol' boy" values as superior to education and knowledge.