While many on the left are super-sensitive when it comes to any inference of voter disenfranchisement or coercion, their thin skins have emerged when it comes to the ongoing charge of liberal indoctrination in academia, demonstrated by the current rise of all things Obamanation.
How else to debunk a conspiracy theory on liberal indoctrination in schools? Try a survey conducted by academics.
According to the Associated Press,
The research, to be published later this year in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics, analyzes separate surveys on the attitudes of about 6,800 students at 38 universities and how they changed between freshman and senior year. Then it examines whether those results are affected by the political attitudes of the faculty at their particular school.The short answer is no, according to researchers Gordon Hewitt of Hamilton College (an active Democrat) and Mack Mariani of Xavier University (who has worked for Republicans).
Of course not. The left would NEVER attempt to take advantage of young people with limited life experience, and whose grades are held over their heads should their coursework not emulate the thinking of their open-minded professors.
Tell that to radical teachers like Jay Bennish, brainwashed students like the late Rachel Corrie, or any of the recently crop of students who’ve become so depressed after hearing years of liberal whining, they go suicidal and/or berserk.
As I wrote before, if 40-plus percent of college students said they were going to vote Republican in November, Henry Waxman would be convening congressional hearings and the Democrats would be seeking some kind of fairness in the classroom legislation. But as young people around the nation are drunk with all things Democrat, the only thing left to do is cover their tracks.
It’s true that schools with more liberal faculty tended to attract more liberal students. But on the question of how students’ views evolved, there was little impact, Hewitt said in a telephone interview Thursday.
About 60 percent of students didn’t change their political outlooks much during college. Those that did moved slightly to the left, but the change mirrored that of 18-to-24 year-olds generally. There was no apparent boost from attending a school with a particularly liberal faculty.
Sorry, but even college students aren’t stupid.
It’s obvious what the purpose of this research is. Pardon my cynicism, but there hasn’t been much subtlety here. Between the previously futile attempts by Rock The Vote, coupled with the Gore-led global-warming-doom festival rallies, and now the Democrat push for the youth vote, the left has invested many years in producing little Democrats purely for the purpose of swaying elections.
Regardless of the results of the “research”, the ideological makeup of our nation’s faculty doesn’t reflect the political makeup of America. That’s not the fault of our colleges and schools, as conservatives normally work while liberals attempt to teach.
The phenomenon at elite schools attracts the most attention. According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Web site OpenSecrets.org, employees of Harvard University and their family members have contributed a combined $363,000 to the Democratic presidential campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has received under $10,000.
Explanations for academia’s political tilt vary. Conservatives tend to blame discrimination and indoctrination, saying academic culture purges out views it doesn’t like. Others contend it’s self-selection — that liberals have personality traits that make them more likely to go into academia.
“Self-selection.” Isn’t that special.
Don’t tell me all is well and fair in schools. This fall’s general election will hinge on the previously failed reliability of young people. The left will have students captive in school for almost all of September and October, whipping them into a political frenzy before November fourth. Should the youth vote produce a Democrat president, there will be hard feelings and academia will bear the brunt of criticism.
Let the CYA’s begin.
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We can only hope that the fervently liberal youth will be registered voters in the precincts of their liberal universities located in their liberal states which won’t affect the election outcome as they will vote liberal with or without the newby recruits.