How And Why The Ivy League Will Die

The Federalist ^ | 1/17/2024 | Isaac Simpson

[TalBlack]

“Chaos is the shape of things when a better shape isn’t forced, isn’t mandated by people who care.“

We gotta start acting like we care…

[A strike]

Theory is warmly welcomed like comfort food but certainly not likely.

-fJRoberts-

[poconopundit]

I never considered this Ivy League bias in SCOTUS nominations. It’s a very good point — and Trump broke the mold in nominating Barrett.

Note that Trump broke the glass ceiling (in reverse) by giving major speeches at the US Coast Guard Academy, West Point, and Liberty University. That sent a message to the so-called “elite” universities.

[Dr. Franklin]

I never considered this Ivy League bias in SCOTUS nominations. It’s a very good point — and Trump broke the mold in nominating Barrett.

It wasn't just an Ivy League bias. It was a Harvard and Yale law school bias. The rest of the Ivy League is underrepresented in recent years both on SCOTUS and in POTUS. Penn considers itself the oldest university in the nation, and yet, this institution founded by Benjamin Franklin in part, never had an almnus elected president before Trump. Think about that. However, with regard to the judiciary, the federal bench should be judged based upon their written opinions when promotions are considered, and not just what law school they attended. The country has suffered because of that snobbery.

[poconopundit]

Thanks GOPJ for highlighting this story about the Ivys, which is indeed well-written and thoughtful.

If I had to make a major speech or column, a good strategy would be to first post snippets of my key thoughts on Free Republic.

The comments you would hear back would be instantly show the value of what you've said.  FR reaches a wide swath of intelligent people -- and even capturing their attention for a few moments to write a brief comment can be quite illuminating.  And key points you DID NOT cover in your post would also be detected and you'd get that feedback, too.

Now one particular guy I go back to time and time again is the 19th century poet/pundit Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord, Massachusetts.  And I remember another original thinker, Rush Limbaugh, would sometimes refer to Emerson's "Self-Reliance" as a life philosophy he found of great value as an American.

One of the best things I ever did was (20 years ago) to compile a collection of my favorite snippets from Emerson's Essays.  And I've used that resource time and time again on FR, but also in my work as a telecom industry journalist/analyst.  In fact, if any FReeper would like an HTML version (20 Mbytes) of that collection, I'd happily send you the zip file to it.  So contact me privately.

One particular essay relevant to this current post is Emerson's remarks from Wealth, Conduct of Life, an essay written in 1860 and revised in 1876:

"A dollar is not value, but representative of value, and, at last, of moral values.  Wealth is mental; wealth is moral.  The value of a dollar is, to buy just things: a dollar goes on increasing in value with all the genius, and all the virtue of the world.

A dollar in a university, is worth more than a dollar in a jail; in a temperate, schooled, law-abiding community, than in some sink of crime, where dice, knives, and arsenic, are in constant play.

The "Bank-Note Detector" is a useful publication.  But the current dollar, silver or paper, is itself the detector of the right and wrong where it circulates.

If you take out of State Street the ten most honest merchants, and put in ten roguish persons, controlling the same amount of capital, -- the rates of insurance will indicate it; the soundness of banks will show it: the highways will be less secure: the schools will feel it; and the children will bring home their little dose of the poison.

The judge will sit less firmly on the bench, and his decisions will be less upright; he has lost so much support and constraint, -- which all need; and the pulpit will betray it too, in a laxer rule of life."

[poconopundit]

Wow, Penn never had an alumnus elected President till Trump.

And probably the elites of all the highfalutin “finishing” schools were very disappointed when a great American like Trump won in 2016. I’m so glad this present controversy has exposed these institutions for what they are.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Wow.

Great article, very fine post.