Conservatives are stupid, right?

How exactly did Conservatives become associated with unintelligent red necks?  And on the other side of the coin how did Liberals get the reputation for being smart and educated?

All the wealthy and successful people I know are conservatives.  They own fine homes and businesses, play the stock market, their kids go the private schools.  These are people who go to college and expect that same of their children and such.

Conversely I've known a number of liberals who really weren't so bright.  People who are well into their 40s who have no savings for retirement, people who exercise no authority over their children.  People who run out to the car dealership every year to lease some new car they can barely make payments on.  Burnt out dead heads who still think it's cool to get high, et cetera.

I know both sides have their fair share of each kind, but from my experiences it looks like conservatives have a reputation they don't really deserve.  They tend to be unwilling to look through another culture's point of view, and unfortunately take to religion, but so far as I know most conservative people are educated and good with money.

its a simple system. the conservatives control the tiny minority with all the money, which they use to keep a leg up on democratic funding. however, while this gets them all the money they need, they dont have a large share of the votes.

so they turn to idiots, like rednecks and fundamentalist christians, appeal to their racist, homophobic, intolerant nature and get their votes. so the conservatives have most of the money and most of the people (because, lets face it, most americans are idiots) and use their power to ensure that A) they continue to have the money and B) americans continue to be idiots. in so doing, they establish the groundwork for continued control of America forever.

the idiot voting base is too stupid to recognize a lie and too loyal to recognize the truth, so that will never change.

the buisness elite is too selfish and too concerned with their own money to change. the wealthy and successful people you know are conservatives because republicans ease up on their taxes, and your friends are more concerned with their yachts than the wellbeing of the average american citizen.