Affirmative Action for Conservatives, or Rigging the University System

Joe Knott, a member of the UNC Board of Governors, penned an op-ed whining about the lack of conservative professors at UNC. He cites an article by another conservative whiner, UNC business school professor Michael Jacobs, as evidence that we lack intellectual debate at UNC-CH. His solution is to set up an affirmative action program for conservatives to attract them to the university. What a bunch of snowflakes.

According Jacobs, “there are 23 registered Democrats for every Republican in the departments that address political and social issues.” He doesn’t mention how many are independents who may have conservative leanings. Among faculty in the UNC Department of Economics, about 60% are registered unaffiliated or not registered in North Carolina at all, so some conservatives probably aren’t Republicans. Still, part of the disparity reflects a Republican Party that has embraced a know-nothing, anti-intellectual political philosophy, rejecting science-based solutions and holding firm to supply-side economics that have clearly benefited the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the working class.

The GOP isn’t attracting many non-white voters with college degrees and it has been losing an increasing number of white college educated voters for a while now. In 2016, Trump won less than 40% of them.That doesn’t reflect indoctrination at colleges. That reflects economic self-defense and the GOP’s transition from a moderate conservative movement to one dominated by angry populists. Today, the GOP coalition is made up primarily of wealthy free-marketeers, white evangelical Christians and white grievance voters who have little use for academia. The modern Republican Party bears little resemblance to the one envisioned by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Republican intellectuals and industry-paid scientists have spent the past twenty years denying that manmade activity had an impact on climate change instead of offering market-oriented solutions. They defended free market extremism and unfettered free trade policies while wages stagnated and the lion’s share of income shifted from the poor and working class to the very wealthy. They argue that economic growth is more important than shared prosperity even as upward economic mobility for the poorest 50% of the country became increasingly difficult.

Read more: https://www.politicsnc.com/affirmative-action-for-conservatives-or-rigging-the-university-system/