I've seen movies that had scenes depicting the rise of communism and takeover of government in China, Cambodia and elsewhere. They follow this pattern of dumbing down the brainwashed followers, putting them in charge while displacing intellectuals of experience in professions. Many intellectuals are imprisoned and butchered. The left has put our nation on this path. Many will suffer because of semi-literates pushing aside knowledgeable professionals. Of course right conservatives will not allow this to proceed to communism, and we'll reset the course of our nation back to normalcy. Might take a couple decades, but we'll get it done.
I think the communist takeovers in Asia were more of a result of an uneducated, illiterate peasantry. In Cambodia in particular, the Khmer Rouge viewed literacy as a threat (and would kill people wearing glasses because of that). Mao’s army was composed of many uneducated peasants as well; they started out “dumbed down”.
When you have populations like that (which we are headed towards), the government is the sole source of information.