Posted on 06/23/2014 10:22:04 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
U.S. Representative Eric Cantor’s recent primary loss to free market economics professor David Brat has forced academics to take another look at the TEA Party. “They are very suspicious of liberal professors and believe most of academia is dominated by liberal professors,” Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol claims. “But they would know the difference in their district, and they wouldn’t disrespect somebody just because they were a professor, if they had the appropriate ideas.” david brat
“It’s not so much an animosity toward higher education, per se, and more toward a cultural elitism among liberals and concerns about liberal biases,” Ruth L Braunstein, a University of Connecticut sociologist claims. Indeed, in the same article in which those quotes appear, in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jon A. Shields, an associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, states that in academia “there are a lot of conservatives who are closeted before tenure.”
“That’s very common.” Thus, to most in academe, conservatives are, at best, exotic, and, more commonly, dangerous. Indeed, academics are often surprised to find any evidence of erudition among TEA partiers, even though, as Jack Stirpling, author of the aforementioned article in The Chronicle, notes, “A 2013 report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said that 34 percent of Tea Party supporters have a college degree, compared with 26 percent of non-Tea Party Republicans.”
Just think of Ted Cruz vis-à-vis John McCain.
Suck on that, GOP-e!
I wonder what % of TEA Party people know what a Benghazi is compared to the rest of the population.
I’ve run across lots of people who mistakenly believe the “anti-elite” opinion among the TEA Party somehow means animosity to those who are intelligent, academic, or who are achievers. In reality, it’s the phony “elite”, the self-styled “betters” whose only claim to being elite is their claim that they’re elite, that are the subject of scorn.
Take a look at idiots like Josh Barro and Matt Yglesias, who seem to think that the fact they went to school at Harvard means they’re an instant expert on every subject imaginable. That’s the kind of “elite” we rail against. Not actual experts.
Similarly, the act of being elected to Congress doesn’t magically make you capable of (or deserving of) managing other people’s lives and decision-making.
Really isn’t rocket science when you consider....
1) There was a light turnout in the primary which enabled dedicated activists to get the upper hand.
2) The challenger benefited from a good deal of free air time on conservative talk radio.
3) The incumbent was on the wrong side of a key issue...in this case illegal immigration.
What is the % of advance degrees I wonder.
“Indeed, academics are often surprised to find any evidence of erudition among TEA partiers”
It doesn’t fit the Mainstream Media’s imagery meme that Tea Partier’s are “Stupid, uneducated racists”.
Unfortunately, the survey doesn’t seem to have broken that down: http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/10-16-13%20Tea%20Party%20Release.pdf
1 and 2 mean that the general election may be a lot harder to win.
#3 will be “baked into the cake” by November.
It’s difficult to tell if they are more shocked that TEA partiers would vote for an academic or that there was a conservative academic.
An "advanced degree" is evidence of in-depth study in a particular field, usually a very narrow field.
People with advanced degrees usually have spent most or all of their formative and young adult years in the artificial environment of academia.
Admittedly, the above assertions are generalizations, but, generally, they hold true.
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein
I was just wondering.
And I was just ranting & pontificating... Please forgive me.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Brevity is the soul of wit, according to Rush.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.