Here's my take:

Right-wing pundits are peddling moral elitism, and left-wing pundits are peddling intellectual elitism. This is why the participants in any left-right debate tend to talk past each other. They really are engaged in two different conversations.

Also, the aspiration to be righteous is marked by passion and the aspiration to be smart is marked by rationality. This is why right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh have more devoted and loyal fans than left-wing pundits do.

The question I have is: What can those of us in the middle of the fray do about it? I don't want to choose between good and smart; I want both.

Rush is a structured rational thinker. Even left-wingers with genius IQs suffer from economic envy (irrational need for Marxist equality) psychoses.

You discount the fact that we economic conservatives feel intellectually superior knowing that progressive economics goes against the scientific consensuses with their Keynesian, Marxist, anti free market socialism.

The most conservative department at a university usually is the Business College because classical economics is rational, logical and scientifically verifiable. I personally cannot fathom the leftist’s need to fan economic envy (and class hatred) at the proletariat.

To put it in another way, leftists cannot attract large audiences because most people instinctively feel liberals are inauthentic irrational kooks, no matter how educated and intelligent they are.