Discovering the Obvious

Well, well, well. The Washington Post and New York Times have finally figured out what most of us have known for some time now, college and university falcuties are heavy with leftists. To think for years these bastions of liberalism have laughed off conservative claims about this. Michael Reagan comments on these "revelations".

"The secret is now out. It’s official. If the Post has written about it, liberalism’s Washington mouthpiece has put its stamp of approval on the notion that liberals run America’s higher education establishment and the rest of the media is therefore now free to write about it. It’s only taken them about 30 or 40 years to cotton up to the idea, but what the heck, better late than never.

Of course for years those of us in talk radio, David Horowitz, the Young America’s Foundation and others in the conservative movement have been telling anyone who’d listen that liberal professors vastly outnumber conservatives and how they bring their Marxist politics to the classroom and indoctrinate our children.

For our pains we have been laughed at and told we didn’t know what we were talking about. Now comes the Post to admit that we did. "

Once again, the leftists have been caught with their collective pants down. For years they denied that there was any liberal/leftist bias on the nation's campuses. Now one of their leading mouthpieces has had to admit there was and still is that bias.

"According to the Post, the study authored by Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and fellow political science professors Stanley Rothman of Smith College and Neil Nevitte of the University of Toronto, concluded that 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal while a miniscule 15 percent are conservative. Moreover, 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identified themselves as Democrats but only 11 percent admitted to being Republicans.

Noted the Post, it’s even worse at the most elite schools, where a whopping 87 percent of faculty are liberal while only 13 percent are conservative. The study was based on a survey of 1,643 full-time faculty at 183 four-year schools.

Dr. Rothman said the study findings are evidence of "possible discrimination" against conservatives in hiring and promotion. Even after factoring in levels of achievement, as measured by published work and organization memberships, "the most likely conclusion" is that "being conservative counts against you," he said. "It doesn't surprise me, because I've observed it happening." "

Possible discrimination? I would suggest that the numbers sited by Dr. Rothman indicate a pattern of discrimination againts conservative professor. Of course you would have to expect that sort of rhetoric from the left, I suppose.

"My daughter Ashley attends a Lutheran university where you would not expect to find a clone of Professor Ward Churchill. If so, you’d be wrong. A year ago, she walked into a class she had to take, and on the first day the teacher said to the students, "Listen, I’m a liberal Democrat. If you are a conservative, you will have no standing in my class so I would suggest that you drop it."

So much for education being the free and open exchange of ideas and points of view. Imagine if a conservative professor said this to leftist students. I can hear the cries from the left to have that professor fired or censured. That is the hypocricy of the left. It is also the impact of not having a balance in academia. Perhaps now that the one of the liberal MSM has recognized that there is a leftist bias, this is the first step in creating a better balance. Some how, though, I think it will take considerably more then this to accomplish that end. - Sailor