I posted this on Twitter earlier today:
“Why do people who promote tolerance often want to completely eliminate/shutup people with differing views? #irony
And tonight, a local guy named Adam replied with this link: Nearly all my professors are Democrats. Isn’t that a problem? It’s written by a non-conservative, non-Republican student at the University of Oregon, and I think you’ll find it interesting no matter where your political affiliations are. I know I did.
I’m reminded of a quote by a famous Irishman:
“You rid the room of argument, you empty your life of the people you need the most.”
7 Comments
It’s a REAL problem. Like Adam I am neither a democrat nor republican; I think Harry Reid and Sarah Palin are equally disastrous for this country.
I’m interested to know if the extreme dearth of intelligent, moderate republicans (to be honest, with the exception of Pat Buchanan those adjectives might be redundant) in national politics right now–either in Congress or the media–is a symptom or a cause of this kind of mindset in academia. Either way it is hard to have a debate about real issues on a college campus when one party’s line includes things like creationism and a disavowal of global warming.
Professors should absolutely keep their politics out of their lectures wherever possible in my opinion. Separation of classroom and state is just as important as separation of church and state if we are going to have a healthy exchange of ideas.
David: And you think you’re enlightened and open-minded? “Reread this again: I’m interested to know if the extreme dearth of intelligent, moderate republicans (to be honest, with the exception of Pat Buchanan those adjectives might be redundant).”
Wow, talk about condescending….
Juice, when you have Sarah Palin as the de facto leader of the republican party, and Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Hannity leading the conservative media, I do not see how that could possibly be construed as anything but accurate. Sessions, Ensign, and Sanford are all making obvious fools of themselves…Buchanan is the only far-right politico that I have any respect for in the current environment.
I’d disagree with the idea that Palin is the leader of the Republican party. I don’t think the Republican party has a leader right now. And to me, the problem is that there are too few moderates in both parties — at least too few that seem to hold any sway, too few that get any attention. Ergo, I’ll continue to support a guy like Ron Paul and cross my fingers that Peter Schiff gets into politics. Don’t know much about his overall views, but he’s been right for a long time on the economy.
I think by default Palin is the leader of the political party right now. She certainly has a higher approval rating than anyone else (70pct among Reps) and is the only face–besides maybe Newt?–that the average American is going to recognize which is why I made that comment.
I LOVED the freshness Paul brought to the campaign; I had an RP bumper sticker until after the March primary. He was dead right on foreign policy and IS dead right on auditing the Fed. So why did even FOX NEWS deny him time during the debates?
Had never heard of Peter Schiff until just now but if he was right on the economy then he should be Treasury Secy. Geithner’s pretty much been a disaster as far as I can tell.
I’ve written about Schiff a couple times:
http://www.mattmcgee.com/tag/peterschiff/
Let me get this straight. You support RP, who’s domestic views line up 10% with the 3 conservative pundits (though O’Reilly’s no con; he’s a liberal if you look at his positions, not his rhetoric), yet there are no intelligent Republicans? I hate to use the term moderate. What does that mean? Either you support something or you don’t.
Dave, here’s 3 intelligent righty pundits for you: Larry Elder, Michael Medved and Dennis Prager.
Why don’t the Dems ever get blasted for not being moderate? Are Olbermann, Maddow and Randi Rhodes moderate? Is Obama moderate? He’s 10x more left than I thought he would be domestically. Though he’s kept Bush’s foreign policy nearly 100%. Free unicorns for all from me the day Gitmo is closed down. I’ll be giving out the unicorns from my swampland ranch in Wyoming, which is right down the street from the Lost city of Atlantis.
Bush was a moderate republican domestically speaking and was vilified for it by both sides. McCain was a moderate, too. And that’s why he lost.
As for RP, 100% agree with him domestically. Foreign policywise he’s a joke. Sorry, but burying your head in the sand and hoping the rest of the world ignores us. And please, Dave, don’t bother with any nonsense about us exploiting the Middle East.
We’ve made them rich by buying oil from them at prices set by them. Exploitation?