Hutchins made the news quite often from his perch in his think tank in Santa Barbara, populated with leftists who were intent on exposing conservatives as neo-fascists. Goldwater and Reagan were two of their favorite targets in op-eds dutifully published by editors of like mind such as Tom Braden of the Oceanside Blade-Tribune. (Braden, an ex-CIA operative who was for a time Pat Buchanan's sparring partner on CNN's Firing Line program, was the prototypical liberal newspaper publisher who would echo whatever tripe was put out by leftist think tanks.)
Not saying that studying the classics is another step closer to the totalitarian abyss, but I'm curious as to why there appears to be so much interest among those on the academic left.
Certain founders of this great nation read Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas and European history (some in the original Latin and Greek) and were for the most part defenders of man's natural rights and wary of an all-powerful central government. Until recently, it was normal for Republican candidates for office to occasionally refer in their campaigns to the signers of the Declaration of Independence and/or the Constitution as models they wished to follow in their political careers.
So where do current candidates go these days to get this kind of education? St. John's? Or are there more that offer this kind of study?
A very good heritage indeed.