Anti-rationality and ignorance aren't new to the scene in the US. In 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote an essay titled "Cult of Ignorance." [1]
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and
there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism
has been a constant thread winding its way through our
political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion
that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as
your knowledge.'”