The Daily Iowan
By Anthony Harris
Published: Monday, August 23, 2004

During the Democratic National Convention, C-SPAN covered "Grass-roots Campaign Training for Young Democrats," a seminar in which Democrat strategist Teresa Vilmain asked activists in training for examples of the Democratic Party's base communities (i.e., constituencies). One Dem smugly chimed "educated people," earning a cheap pop from the group.

On another front: According to the Students for Academic Freedom complaint lodger, one professor at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., told his class that "teachers are more educated, and that's why they have liberal views."

I've spent four semesters in a community college and have served more than two years at the UI; a professor this arrogant would fit in much better at a four-year institution. Thanks to academic elitism, those who don't support abortion and high taxes have been collectively branded "misinformed." If the label is accurate at all, then it logically follows that the lower someone's level of education is, the more conservative she or he is.

For the thousandth time, the facts contradict liberal prejudice. According to statistics compiled from the Gallup Report and the New York Times, the less education one has, the more likely she or he is to vote Democrat (assuming that the person can figure out the ballots in Florida).

In the 1968 presidential election, 43 percent of voters chose Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, while 43.4 percent voted for Republican candidate Richard Nixon. In an election almost as close as that of 2000, 52 percent of voters with only a grade-school education voted for Humphrey, and 33 percent of the same group voted for Nixon.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won 50 percent of the popular vote over Gerald Ford's 48 percent. Carter won the grade-school vote, 58 to 41 percent. When Bill Clinton thumped Bob Dole in 1996, 49 to 41 percent, he dominated the undereducated vote, 59 to 28 percent. When Clinton won his first presidency in 1992, he beat George H.W. Bush, 43 to 38 percent. Undereducated voters that year supported Clinton over Bush by a 2-1 margin, 56 to 28 percent.

Wait, there's more!

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the popular vote 51 to 41 percent over Jimmy Carter, but the undereducated vote swung Democrat, 54 to 42 percent. In 1984, when Reagan outclassed the Mondale/Ferraro ticket by a 59 to 41 percent margin, 51 percent of undereducated voters chose Mondale. George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis by 8 percentage points in 1988 but lost the undereducated vote to Mister Roger's double by 13 points. Most recently, Al Gore won the undereducated vote by 20 points, 59 to 39 percent.

In fact, in every presidential election since 1972, Democrats have been supported by a majority of people who have been neglected by American schools. No wonder liberals don't like No Child Left Behind - they're losing converts.

This has to frustrate the left, which scored one of its biggest long-term victories in the 1960s in education. Allowing professors to shed integrity in the face of conservatism for decades, all activist educators have to show for their efforts are the soft sciences and the arts. According to the Students for Academic Freedom complaint lodger, in a women's studies class at the University of Calfornia-Santa Barbara, a professor graded a student down for holding conservative views. This isn't particularly shocking, and neither is the department head's alleged response to the situation, as she explained that completely objective teachers do not exist. The lesson: Nothing can deflect responsibility like philosophical trivia.

To be fair, liberals aren't the only dogmatists in academia. One Colorado State University teaching assistant complained that disagreeing with a program director's Christian viewpoint resulted in no classes being available to teach. The difference in this circumstance is that the administration at Colorado State apparently took action, as the director and several born-again faculty members are now gone.

On the right and the left, professors are attempting indoctrination in an illogical environment, one that (ideally) stresses critical thinking skills. Without these skills, one is more likely to defer to popular political clichés. A good education is important, because in an age where Michael Moore has more influence than Robert Bork, critical thinking keeps conservatism alive.

Dumbing down the liberal way (registration required)

Well, that explains a lot.