Newt Gingrich is also still running for President at this time (again, something that will seem very odd 10 years from now). He gave a speech at a church recently where he attacked colleges as bad places because they try to liberalize and secularize people. Was the message not to go to college?
These people are still in the primaries, which means they are trying to get the conservative Republican Party nomination for President. This always becomes a "how far right can you go?" contest, which ends up hurting any eventual nominee if he goes too far. These guys just went too far.
Conservatism is defined as people that resist change and are usually convinced that some time in the past was a better time. They tend to admire people from the past as having better values and being more respectable because they have not been tainted and corrupted by these modern times.
I would find it very interesting to whisk Newt and Rick back in time to the post WWII era. I would like to see them give their stirring stump speeches to crowds of World War Vets, who they would probably describe in glowing terms as from the Greatest Generation. Can you imagine these people, many of whom eagerly took advantage of the new GI Bill to educate themselves and launch themselves back into the work world with more marketable skills and a chance at prosperity that they couldn't have dreamed of prior to the war? Can you imagine them cheering Newt and Rick telling them that college was bad? Can you imagine these men that faced down fascism and imperialism agreeing that ideas from professors at American colleges were somehow irresistably subversive and should be avoided? Would they consider that the power of these professors to brainwash them would be so strong that they should avoid college completely just in case they might fall victim to it?
I imagine that a WWII vet would probably not have a problem talking back to a college professor if he said something bad about America. I also imagine that a WWII vet would probably tell Newt & Rick to shove it if they went back in time and told them not to go to school.
In what world is it a good idea to discourage people from going to school? Here we have a situation where one of the major fears in retaining a U.S. edge in the world is that we aren't educating ourselves enough, and these people are running for President and attacking the best path to personal prosperity and the best method for maintaining U.S. superiority? How is that leadership?
