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A recent PEW Research survey found that 58% of Republicans and Independents believe colleges and universities now have a negative impact on our nation---the first time a majority of conservatives have expressed that view.
The same survey found that 72% of Democrats and progressives now believe colleges and universities have a positive impact on our nation.
Both groups are negative toward the news media---85% of Republicans and even 46% of Democrats believe the news media has a negative impact on our country.
PEW doesn't speculate about why people feel as they do, but the "Facts" and the "Why" certainly identifies the social, ideological and moral divide in our country.
The PEW Survey found that Democrats and Republicans are "growing substantially more divided in their opinions on public institutions."
Danny Westneat, at the Seattle Times---an oracle for the far Left, says, "The news that Republicans now think college is bad for America reads like a parody. But remember when it seemed crazy that Donald Trump could get elected?"
There's actually nothing in the survey that suggests that Republicans think "college is bad for America"---they think our colleges and universities "as they are currently operating" are bad for America.
I think Westneat knew that, but that version in his headline helps make his case.
He says he first noticed "the GOP becoming weirdly anti-college in the 2012 presidential campaign when Rick Santorum called then-President Obama 'a snob' for wanting all kids to have a chance to go to college."
Danny forgets that Santorum wasn't speaking for "Republicans" back then, he was speaking for himself and the 4% who supported his candidacy---although most progressives are snobs for all kinds of reasons.
Westneat says, "Universities represent an elite liberal sphere of society" and "that the ivory tower leans left has been known since at least the 1960s. So what caused the sea change in opinion?"
This is classic. He solves his own mystery:
The echo chamber, that's what.
"Recent campus protests and controversies about trigger warnings or other 'PC' issues have been covered relentlessly by Fox News, Breitbart and sites devoted solely to mocking leftist college outrages. Some of it is true, as students or faculty sometimes do act ridiculously. But other stories were fake. Example: It's been a thing in the right-wing ether that California college students are threatening to castrate themselves to protest Trump's Mexico wall. Seriously, I'm not making this up (well, its made up, but what I'm not making up is that its a real made-up thing. Welcome to the news business, 2017)."
I don't think anyone thought the kids would actually castrate themselves---they are already rendering themselves and the campuses impotent with their chaos by sitting in circles drinking cocoa and being counseled over Hillary's political loss, silencing those with whom they disagree under the guise of "free speech" and declaring their space a safe space as they throw things at authorities and other students who hold different views.
And Westneat says, "As with the rest of Trumpism, it would be a mistake not to take it seriously," noting that "some legislators in Washington State want to close Evergreen State College in Olympia."
Evergreen State College in Olympia is a disaster by all accounts---except those of far Left advocates. It should be an embarrassment not a banner for their so-called progressivism.
Dear Danny:
Many of us have been concerned with public education for some time. Trump did not usher in the lack of support revealed in the Pew Survey. We have been feeling this way for a long time. This is not actually a "sea change," it's a rising tide of wanting more...and better, for our kids, and for the thousands of tax dollars we pay each year.
We are sick and tired of Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign and Black Lives Matter indoctrinating our children from K thru HS regarding the sanctity of life, human sexuality, and race.
We are also sick and tired of the constant assault on all things Christian under the guise of "separating the church and the state" while educators go to great ends to teach the tenants of Islam and other religions.
After all, Christians and Christian groups founded most all of America's first colleges and universities---including our very first---Harvard---the namesake of Rev. John Harvard.
Trump did not create this. However, it very well may have helped him get elected. Even before the last election we conservatives had a pretty good take on where Hillary would like to have taken us.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. In his recent article titled, "Colleges: Islands of Intolerance," he spoke to this issue, including the Evergreen State College fiasco.
This is part of what he, a Black educator, wrote:
Is there no limit to the level of disgusting behavior on college campuses that parents, taxpayers, donors and legislators will accept? Colleges have become islands of intolerance, and as with fish, the rot begins at the head. Let's examine some recent episodes representative of a general trend and ask ourselves why we should tolerate it plus pay for it.
Students at Evergreen State College harassed biology professor Bret Weinstein because he refused to leave campus, challenging the school's decision to ask white people to leave campus for a day of diversity programming. The profanity-laced threats against the faculty and president can be seen on a YouTube video titled "Student takeover of Evergreen State College" (http://tinyurl.com/yah2eo3p).
What about administrators permitting students to conduct racially segregated graduation ceremonies, which many colleges have done, including Ivy League ones such as Columbia and Harvard universities? Permitting racially segregated graduation ceremonies makes a mockery of the idols of diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion, which so many college administrators worship. Or is tribalism part and parcel of diversity?
Trinity College sociology professor Johnny Eric Williams recently called white people "inhuman assholes." In the wake of the Alexandria, Virginia, shooting at a congressional baseball practice, Williams tweeted, "It is past time for the racially oppressed to do what people who believe themselves to be 'white' will not do, put (an) end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system. #LetThemF—-ingDie"
June Chu, dean of Pierson College at Yale University, recently resigned after having been placed on leave because of offensive Yelp reviews she had posted. One of her reviews described customers at a local restaurant as "white trash" and "low class folk"; another review praised a movie theater for its lack of "sketchy crowds." In another review of a movie theater, she complained about the "barely educated morons trying to manage snack orders for the obese."
I suggest you read Williams' entire article.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Bold.