Posted on 08/24/2004 2:38:10 PM PDT by Afghan Whig
Dumbing down the liberal way By Anthony Harris
During the Democratic National Convention, C-SPAN covered "Grass-roots Campaign Training for Young Democrats," a seminar in which Democrat strategist Teresa Vilmain asked activists in training for examples of the Democratic Party's base communities (i.e., constituencies). One Dem smugly chimed "educated people," earning a cheap pop from the group.
On another front: According to the Students for Academic Freedom complaint lodger, one professor at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., told his class that "teachers are more educated, and that's why they have liberal views."
I've spent four semesters in a community college and have served more than two years at the UI; a professor this arrogant would fit in much better at a four-year institution. Thanks to academic elitism, those who don't support abortion and high taxes have been collectively branded "misinformed." If the label is accurate at all, then it logically follows that the lower someone's level of education is, the more conservative she or he is.
For the thousandth time, the facts contradict liberal prejudice. According to statistics compiled from the Gallup Report and the New York Times, the less education one has, the more likely she or he is to vote Democrat (assuming that the person can figure out the ballots in Florida).
In the 1968 presidential election, 43 percent of voters chose Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, while 43.4 percent voted for Republican candidate Richard Nixon. In an election almost as close as that of 2000, 52 percent of voters with only a grade-school education voted for Humphrey, and 33 percent of the same group voted for Nixon.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter won 50 percent of the popular vote over Gerald Ford's 48 percent. Carter won the grade-school vote, 58 to 41 percent. When Bill Clinton thumped Bob Dole in 1996, 49 to 41 percent, he dominated the undereducated vote, 59 to 28 percent. When Clinton won his first presidency in 1992, he beat George H.W. Bush, 43 to 38 percent. Undereducated voters that year supported Clinton over Bush by a 2-1 margin, 56 to 28 percent.
Wait, there's more!
In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the popular vote 51 to 41 percent over Jimmy Carter, but the undereducated vote swung Democrat, 54 to 42 percent. In 1984, when Reagan outclassed the Mondale/Ferraro ticket by a 59 to 41 percent margin, 51 percent of undereducated voters chose Mondale. George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis by 8 percentage points in 1988 but lost the undereducated vote to Mister Roger's double by 13 points. Most recently, Al Gore won the undereducated vote by 20 points, 59 to 39 percent.
In fact, in every presidential election since 1972, Democrats have been supported by a majority of people who have been neglected by American schools. No wonder liberals don't like No Child Left Behind - they're losing converts.
This has to frustrate the left, which scored one of its biggest long-term victories in the 1960s in education. Allowing professors to shed integrity in the face of conservatism for decades, all activist educators have to show for their efforts are the soft sciences and the arts. According to the Students for Academic Freedom complaint lodger, in a women's studies class at the University of Calfornia-Santa Barbara, a professor graded a student down for holding conservative views. This isn't particularly shocking, and neither is the department head's alleged response to the situation, as she explained that completely objective teachers do not exist. The lesson: Nothing can deflect responsibility like philosophical trivia.
To be fair, liberals aren't the only dogmatists in academia. One Colorado State University teaching assistant complained that disagreeing with a program director's Christian viewpoint resulted in no classes being available to teach. The difference in this circumstance is that the administration at Colorado State apparently took action, as the director and several born-again faculty members are now gone.
On the right and the left, professors are attempting indoctrination in an illogical environment, one that (ideally) stresses critical thinking skills. Without these skills, one is more likely to defer to popular political clichés. A good education is important, because in an age where Michael Moore has more influence than Robert Bork, critical thinking keeps conservatism alive.
I have long said that Democrats WANT to keep the schools a mess - it gets them votes in the long run.
And this bears repeating:
For the thousandth time, the facts contradict liberal prejudice. According to statistics compiled from the Gallup Report and the New York Times, the less education one has, the more likely she or he is to vote Democrat (assuming that the person can figure out the ballots in Florida).
I've been a Republican for many years and this is common knowledge.
My opinion as to why this is true is that the uneducated respond better to the promise of "40 acres and a mule" that the Dems offer to the poor and uneducated. These people are less likely to offer the question as to why this offer has been out there for 60 years and no mule has ever showed up.
And people who cannot read, vote in Florida.
Education majors was by far the easiest degree to get when I was in school. There was very little work to do and it was generally simple.
They overwhelmingly vote Democrat, but they can't give you a reason why.
You Don't Say!
My husband got into a political debate in the pro shop today. The Rat couldn't state ONE single thing to back up his contentions and after he left, all the golfers slapped Mr. Peach on the back and said he really outted the ignorance of the Democrat. Hah!
Uhhhhhuhhhhhhhhhh. Do ya think, Beavis?
I once heard something along thses lines by someone famous:
"You have to be pretty smart to believe really dumb things."
Bout sums it up for most Dems.
Bad place for a Democrat to "out" himself...in a golf pro shop. LOL
Lots of stats to back up what we (Conservatives) knew from the get-go.
Well, DUH!
Professors have never done anything productive in their lives, and that's why they're Democrats.
I'm taking a class in macro economics at a local community college.
The first day was yesterday. I corrected the professor three times in the first 30 minutes.
He was trying to indoctrinate the class in socialist economics and his examples were geared for proving his points. I pointed out how each of his points were gross exaggerations, and how prominent economists disagreed with him.
He had to admit that economics is not an exactly science and that there is a lot of debate and disagreement. But he kept his eye on me the remaining 45 minutes, and toned down his rhetoric.
Eheh, he deserved it. A survey of the class showed that other than myself and two other people, everyone else had had no classes in economics prior.
I can vouch for this. I've been having discussions for days with the liberals around here about 527s. None of them know who George Soros is.
2 in 3, and maybe more, republicans know.
This begs the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg??
Vietnam Vet voters are Pi$$ed.
Yes, in those days there were no blonde jokes. They were "education major" jokes.
Things haven't changed.
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