Posted on 02/29/2012 4:47:06 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Rick Santorum is stretching his criticism of President Obama's advocacy of universal college attendance into a broader attack on college itself. Santorum has three college degrees, which provides a good indication of how seriously one should take his assault on what he is labeling as Obama's elitism. As with so many of Santorum's statements, this criticism contains a grain of perception smothered in reactionary dogma.
[BIG SNIP]
In a nation in which almost everyone aspires to upward mobility, how is this a winning political argument?
Sure, colleges are hothouses of liberalism. They have been for generations. And yet Americans of all political persuasions continue to send their children there en masse.
"Enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions increased by 9 percent between 1989 and 1999," reports the National Center for Education Statistics. "Between 1999 and 2009, enrollment increased 38 percent, from 14.8 million to 20.4 million."
Santorum's message to these millions of Americans and their families is: Suckers. You fell into Obama's indoctrination trap!
Instead of attacking college, Santorum should be attacking Obama. The president's college promotion scheme is vulnerable to two criticisms that seem to have largely escaped Santorum's notice because they don't fit his '80s and '90s-era conservative talking points on the subject of higher education.
The first is the cost.......
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Agreed. Santorum seems to be trying to reassure non-college graduates that they can feel okay about grooving a non-college route for their kids—so they can be “made in the image” of mom and dad.
College isn’t for everyone, but steering a kid from college so mom and dad feel better about themselves is a sorry motivation.
What was your point in posting this article?
If you'd read the article you'd understand how he took a golden opportunity and then threw it away. We can't afford to ruin excellent opportunities to expose Obama, not to mention turning voters against our party because someone can't walk and chew gum on the stump.
Santorum is getting on my last nerve. His whole campaign is bassed on taking credit for Newt’s ideas and proposals after Newt has done the heavy lifting.
Like a waiter taking credit for the chef’s recipes;)
The author got and clearly pointed out how Rick Santorum misused a great issue when he could have so easily made a much broader, more important case against Obama and his attack on education and economy. Read the article (as well as the actual Obama quote in Post #3)) to understand.
I happen to care a lot about this issue. I’ve been posting on it for years. The “research” part of universities are the think tank and incubator for Leftist thought and socialist studies that have been used to destroy us. I am disappointed that Santorum sought to make it a class issue with his “snob” comment. He totally wasted a GOLDEN opportunity.
The problem: No parent in America would be one to say “I dont want My kid to go to college”.
Here is the article on the REAL problem with Obama:
“The second is the naked political cronyism. Obama’s college scheme is a double vote-buying plan. With one initiative he buys the votes of middle class families who want to pay less for higher education AND everyone who draws a paycheck from an American college or university. This is the auto bailouts and the stimulus bill all over again. It is a transfer of taxpayer cash to a crucial Democratic Party voting bloc — college and university faculty and staff.
The president is running the country into previously unimagined depths of indebtedness with blatantly obvious vote-buying schemes”
WE HAVE A HIGHER ED BUBBLE AND OBAMA WANTS TO BLOW IT UP FURTHER.
I DID read the article, and do not agree with the author. Santorum made very valid points. obama is a snob; colleges are full of liberal indoctrination. Santorum has explained that he values higher (than highschool) learning, but that people are individuals. Not everyone needs to go to college. We have skilled trades that are very valuable in this country. There are a lot of kids that have a four year degree, living at home, no job, thousands of dollars in debt, and obama wants to create more of them? I don’t think so.
Santorum was campaigning in MI....there are a lot of skilled trades folks in MI. His point was very valid.
And we know that elites believe we’re just the dumb masses — that getting your hands dirty is best left to fly-over rubes. I get what Santorum was saying. But he cherry-picked from something Obama said and went off on a tear and left all the important parts of the argument out. Obama is trying to make education FREE (DEBT off the charts) and Santorum muddied the opportunity to attack Obama and expose this but instead he left himself open to criticism.
“Meanwhile the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture...”
Actually, the Park Service is part of the Dept of Interior.
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