Carter was book smart. He had the proper work ethic to wade through books and become a nuclear engineer. Was he intelligent as well? I’m sure he is somewhat intelligent but not very.
Our entire education system is set up so that anyone with the perseverance can succeed. You don’t need to be a genius to do well. A lazy genius can fail just as easily as someone not so intellectually endowed simply because they have not read the material.
This is of course the way it should be. A willingness to work should in the course of life be good enough to succeed. Intelligence may or may not be part of any persons recipe for achievement (within reason of course,i’m not advocating a point that sub standard mental capacity makes no difference)but hard work will always be in the formula.
I think quantifying liberal and conservative in regards to intelligence is not a very smart way to go about the task. These are passions which are often totally disconnected from intelligence. Liberal and conservative are about how one views the world,they are instinctive and they are about ones concept of the future.
I don’t think political beliefs have anything to do with intelligence. My recent g-friend was a Phd educated social work. Smarter than ill ever be. Great researcher, great college professor, etc. That said, she was so ignorant. She said “hate” in every other sentence. She openly stated she hated this person or group of people or situation. She was genuinely unhappy with herself and lashed out at people in public. My only guess is something traumatic happened to her as a child. I’ve never see such an intelligent person in a 7 year old emotional state.
Carter was never a nuclear physicist. He took one nuclear physics course at Annapolis.