I do not understand. I am a freshmen at Deleware Valley College in Doylestown, PA. For english we had to write a thesis statement for politcal ads that we saw on TV. Every person that wrote theirs on the board (about 8) people wrote stuff promoting Kerry or saying stuff like Bush is not a real leader. I do not understand what these people are thinking? I have yet to meet a republican in college. All of them are for mr. Flip-Flop.[:@]
I didnt write anything, b/c I did not know we had the assignment, this is because I missed class. (long story for missing it) but if I would have known we had the assignment and would have been able to get to class, I would definitely have wrote something pro-Bush and Anti-Kerry.
DD your outgunned so your going to have to quit skipping class and nail some of them liberal wannabe's to the wall.
My 3 kids all graduated from college and was almost brain washed into being liberals while there, it was there conservative ol pappy that saved them from that terrible fate. Their all proud republicans now.
There are a lot of reasons why college students are liberal in their politics. Much of what I say below will seem to demean and deride such liberal college students. Remember, though, that much of what I say is based on my own change of view from one of these liberal college students to a conservative. I tend to vote Republican, but don't have any unshakeable allegiance to the Republican party -- more allegiance to support for the second amendment and resistance to anti-gun laws, allegiance to fiscal responsibility, allegiance to maintaining a strong national defense, allegiance to resistance to government intruding into every aspect of life (which generally tend to lead one to vote Republican instead of Democrat).
Winston Churchill, I think, once said that a 20 year old who was not a liberal was heartless and a 40 year old who was not a conservatice was a fool. There is much wisdom in this witty aphorism. 22 year olds have short memories. Their experience of the world only begins perhaps at the age of 16, giving them an 8 year experience base. My home air conditioner is older than that.
I was in an Engineering Economics class, at the age of 39, when the professor did an exemplary tax return on the board. When the federal taxes amounted to some 25% of the income of the salary of the model, a student in the back of the class objected and said that couldn't be right. The professor complacently turned back to the board, examined his figures, returned to the student and said "No, that is correct. What problem do you see?" Then, looking at the student and SEEING what the problem was, the professor stepped out of his heretofor bland countenance and said "Oh! No! This is only FEDERAL taxes! This guy is going to have to pay state income taxes on top of this. And this guy is probably going to have to pay property taxes. And this guy is going to have to pay 7.5% social security taxes!!!" This student had been lusting for his $45 K engineering salary and assuming he was going to pocket it all. Well, sure, he would have to pay taxes, but this would only amount to maybe $1,000/year, right?! When students start paying $10,000/year taxes to the federal government, their thinking tends to focus and become more questionning, less happy to give money away on do-gooder causes. When the money comes out of your pocket, we are less generous.
When you get married, buy a house, and have children this too changes your perspective. Now do-gooder causes begin to have consequences not only for oneself but for one's children. If the schools want to try all kinds of new crack-pot educational theories it doesn't matter -- unless your own kids are the guinea pigs! When you buy a house, get married, have children you become firmly rooted somewhere. It becomes difficult to pick-up and move if you don't like how things change -- hence you want them to remain unchanged for the most part. Another perspective of the middle aged adult is that change often is a change for the worse. The young person's perspective is that typically change is an improvement. I guess it just takes a few experience being screwed over by changes to develop the cynical attitude about change. "Oh look! A new improved lawn sprinkler device! It costs slightly less than my 10 year old lawn sprinkler
device cost 10 years ago!!! What a deal, and it looks like it will work better than my old sprinkler!" Ha! Ha! Ask someone over 40 years of age what the performance of the new improved lawn sprinkler device can be expected to be.
Anyway, these differences of perspective are conditioned on practical experience of the world. College students have damn little such practical experience; 40 year olds have only too much of this experience. It is not a matter of thinking about, meditating about things. You have to have the practical experience.
So, this is my rational for why students are primarily liberal. An interesting related question is why are college professors liberal? First, note that engineering professors generally are very conservative while liberal arts professors are generally very liberal. Ask yourself what accounts for this split? Maybe because engineering professors have to contend with practical realities -- matter has mass, takes up space, can't be accelerated or decelerated in zero time, with zero energy, at zero cost -- while liberal arts professors contend with things far removed from reality, such as the role of the ghost of Hamlet's father.
Sometimes it is asserted that only people with a stake in the body politic should have the vote. Maybe you should actually pay taxes to have a vote (no taxation without representation, why not no representation without taxation?!)? Maybe you should own property to have a vote? Of course, there are difficulties with these propositions. For example, during the Vietnam War, young people were being drafted and sent off to fight and die in war who did not have the right to vote (at least initially I think the voting age was 21, but has since been reduced to 18 years because of this precise issue). There are other arguments against my suggestions of a similar nature, I acknowledge. I'm just proposing these as a stimulus to thought.
Perhaps some of these college students are working at or close to the minimum wage, and feel that it is time for an increase? Perhaps they see many potential jobs, low paying entry level jobs that are perfect for a person fresh out of college or trying to work while getting their masters, going overseas and feel that is a step in the wrong direction? Perhaps they feel differently about education, abortion than you do.Perhaps due to financial and time contstraints they do not hunt, and therefore gun control is less of an issue, but they hope that when the day comes that they can hunt that our wetlands and national forests will still be there. Perhaps they do not look at the war with a post-hypnotic glow of heroism as some do on this forum, but have friends and highschool buddies that were there and were killed.
If this is the way that they see things can you explain why they they are wrong? Why voting for what they feel is the best future for them is wrong? Or is it just wrong because somebody's conservative pappy told you that it is wrong and without searching for your own answers you followed in step?
Perhaps some of these college students are working at or close to the minimum wage, and feel that it is time for an increase? Perhaps they see many potential jobs, low paying entry level jobs that are perfect for a person fresh out of college or trying to work while getting their masters, going overseas and feel that is a step in the wrong direction? Perhaps they feel differently about education, abortion than you do.Perhaps due to financial and time contstraints they do not hunt, and therefore gun control is less of an issue, but they hope that when the day comes that they can hunt that our wetlands and national forests will still be there. Perhaps they do not look at the war with a post-hypnotic glow of heroism as some do on this forum, but have friends and highschool buddies that were there and were killed.
If this is the way that they see things can you explain why they they are wrong? Why voting for what they feel is the best future for them is wrong? Or is it just wrong because somebody's conservative pappy told you that it is wrong and without searching for your own answers you followed in step?
Or perhaps it's because college students haven't had the burden of carrying real world obligations yet. They haven't earned a real living yet, so they don't realize how awful it is when the government takes a large chunk away. Or perhaps they rely on mom and dad for everything, and they want plenty of government programs to rely upon too. Or perhaps their professors are/were hippies who can't get over the 60's and 70's, and these students are emulating the thoughts and behaviors they observe.
Or perhaps it's because college students haven't had the burden of carrying real world obligations yet. They haven't earned a real living yet, so they don't realize how awful it is when the government takes a large chunk away. Or perhaps they rely on mom and dad for everything, and they want plenty of government programs to rely upon too. Or perhaps their professors are/were hippies who can't get over the 60's and 70's, and these students are emulating the thoughts and behaviors they observe.
I think you hit the nail right on the head with this one etothepii!
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"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."
My 3 kids all graduated from college and was almost brain washed into being liberals while there, it was there conservative ol pappy that saved them from that terrible fate. Their all proud republicans now.
Yeah...that's what happened to me too, though I didn't almost get "brainwashed." If anything, it made me a more radical right-winger. The stupidity of these people astound me...these "intellectuals."
If I woulda came back from school a tree-hugging, gay, gun-grabber, dad woulda done myself, and all of you a favor...marched me out back behind the shop and capped me. I have no doubt about that.
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"Error never shows itself in its naked reality in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
-Irenaeus of Lyon
College adults want Kerry?
