Would you say that there is an anti-intellectualism in the US that precludes writing in the most articulate manner possible?
YES..
YES..
FUCK YES. Look how Obama was chastised for articulating and pronouncing nuclear, Iraq etc.. The media hounds him to this day because he annunciates. I know you are talking about writing, but this is the attitude and it is reflected in "our" written word. Wasn't it an American who wanted to re-write the dictionary so all words were written as they sounded?
Schools are barely getting children by. I learned better writing skills AFTER high school than while IN high school (no college). It is a daily occurence, like I said, to read something, or hear a program that has either horrible spelling or atrocious grammar.
I would also say that most American's vocabulary is pretty slim, so using eloquent words when writing blows right past your audience.
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people
-Carl Sagan
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-Carl Sagan