Thursday's Thought

Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970) was one of the best known American historians during the mid twentieth century, and in fact a graduate of my alma mater (the University of Buffalo). He wrote quite a bit on reform movements and also on the intellectual underpinnings of our political system-- arriving, unfortunately if accurately, at the following conclusion:

"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."