Anyone else like to share an opinion of why this is so?
Theodore Roosevelt famously said thatIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.IMHO leftism is defined by being talk, rather than action. Journalists are the perfect exemplar of that tendency, they have big mouths but they do nothing. And college professors and teachers are famous for not doing much: “Them as can, does. Them as can’t, teaches.” Leftists are cynical about accomplishment, but they are in love with the idea that they deserve the credit - including the payment - for the accomplishments of others. “You didn’t build that” is Exhibit A in that respect.
The left is probably so fixated on college degrees because in most cases, not all, but most, it usually means you lean left. This is just a guess. Ted Cruz made it through Harvard, and Princeton without becoming indoctrinated, but he might just be the exception. But, as for not having a college degree, General, and later President Washington never had a college degree. What he did have was common sense.