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I have a draft-dodger theory.

The reason the Left is so dominant in universities is because of the tidal wave of PhDs minted through the middle and late 60s. Have a look at any given faculty; their credentials are readily available to the public.

I don't think it's a coincidence that during wartime, and under conscription, the numbers of grad school applicants and graduates exploded, likely related to the deferment awarded students.

Now, not all of them are Marxists, and not all were draft dodgers' some surely went on to advanced study for their love of their field. But I think there is a common ideological sympathy between people who avoided military service by hiding in school (or Canada or wherever else) and people who are openly supportive of Marxism. I also believe that my theory helps explain why there are so many less-than-stellar faculty members out there: because they weren't in school for love, but out of cowardice; their scholarship may, upon examination, support this idea.

In a related problem, faculties are so bloated, full of these shirkers, that it is exceedingly difficult to even get an academic job at all. Even for fellow travellers, let alone if you lean to the Right, the job market in academia is ugly.

The Left is the collective gatekeeper to higher ed.

The draft-dodger theory might be true for some, but anecdotally some of the most far-left profs I had in college served in the military. One radical prof was a Marine in Vietnam.

The author does make a lot of good points, but one I'd like to make is the separation of intelligence theory. Some people who may be intelligent in certain areas (literature, music, art, etc.) do not necessarily have good common sense. The best presidents tend to be the ones who have a good idea of what is best for the country and are not dissuaded by cheap pseudo-intellectual trendy arguments. They knew right from wrong and weren't afraid to suffer the consequences.

In my mind the worst political leader of the western countries was Pierre Trudeau. He was an intellectual who thought he knew it all. He was witty and humorous...and a far-left lib. He actually thought far-left liberalism made sense. In contrast Bill Clinton was just an opportunist. He knew that the far-left theories were nonsense, but he loved the acclamation that came with associating with the intellectual "elite". That is why most college profs loved Clinton. He sucked up to them big-time. Here was a pres who understood their cockamamie socialist claptrap and fooled them into thinking that he actually believed that leftist garbage.

I also have another simple theory. Most people gravitate to the the university becausethey just don't want to do any real decent work, they don't want to get their hands dirty!

I'm 57, went to Pitt in Economics from 64-68, and believe me, we were right in the middle of Vietnam right then. All the dweebs I knew in college sought to hide away in graduate school, to be "safe" from the war (remember the lottery). I went into the Army Security Agency after graduation.

The schools now are filled with those chickens to this day. And their hatred for war of any kind, hatred for their government has always been easy to see.