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Loading...Top 5 Reasons GOP Intellectuals Are Know-Nothings
- by Kristina Chew
- September 2, 2012
- 1:00 pm
5. Defunding, and Dumbing Down, Higher Education
As the Chronicle of Higher Education notes, Ryan has said little about public state institutions of higher education, other than that “education ought to be governed by state and local boards more ably qualified to determine student need” than at a federal level. Federal student-aid programs would face huge cuts under Ryan’s budget proposal, which would reduce eligibility for federal Pell Grants for low-income students.
Ryan has praised for-profit colleges, overlooking the fact that the very spending cuts he is calling for could be detrimental for such schools, who receive almost 90 percent of their revenue from federal student-aid programs.
Ryan’s record on issues important to colleges and universities reveals that he sees education in distinctly practical terms. Higher education, Ryan seems to think, is about the sort of job training provided by for-profit colleges and not about research and study that can lead to knowledge and innovation. Ryan’s budget would cut spending on programs funding academic research, including the National Institutes of Health.
He would also completely eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. As Think Progress points out,
The arts are an easy thing to toss to the crowd because you can cherry-pick an example of something that was funded by the NEA or NEH that will sound silly to someone, even if it has tremendous value in terms of preserving folklife traditions or ensuring access to arts and culture to rural communities.
Even while Ryan talks the deficit-hawk talk (and Romney has said he would completely cut subsidies for PBS), he nonetheless appears to be one of those conservatives who “enjoy the credit for talking about shrinking government but don’t actually want to be held responsible for taking things away from people, and the arts are a convenient space for them to stake that particular ground.”
Todd Essig of Forbes writes that he was “hoping for some fun grappling with an ‘intellectual’ far-right politician” at the announcement of Ryan as GOP VP candidate. But an inquiry into Ryan’s thinking behind his policy proposals shows this to be marred by “sloppy methods” and “irrationality.” Far from being an intellectual, Ryan is an anti-intellectual as politicians can be.
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Photo by cathyse97 via Flickr.
Read more: abortion, ayn rand, climate denialist, deficit, election 2012, mitt romney, neh, paul ryan, pell grants, ryan budget, ted cruz
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+ add your ownSomething to think about.
The Greatest Speech Ever - Charlie Chaplin !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmK4Y8r1lxI
Ryan is a slimeball. A worthless POS who had everything handed to him. Just like Romney. Re-elect Obama. If you hate Obama just don't vote for these idiots.
Agree with Don H.
Mark B, I completely agree with you about publicly financed elections. That is the only possible way we can regain our representative democracy.
But I have to take issue you with you when you say, "Democrats want to do away with the Second Amendment".
The NRA TELLS you the Democrats was to do away with the Second Amendment. But it is not true. I'm a gun owner. There are millions of gun owning Democrats. We do not want to do away with the Second Amendment.
Advocating a ban on assault style weapons hardly equates wanting to ban the Second Amendment. I know you have heard time and again from the NRA that this is a "slippery slope" but that doesn't make it true.
When the NRA says, "Clinton wants to take your guns away." or "Obama wants to take your guns away." they are manipulating the thinking of millions of otherwise reasonable Americans. Look how guns and ammunition sales exploded after Obama was elected. Who did that serve? That's right, the gun and ammo manufacturers. It was an easy ploy and the gun makers made out like bandits.
How to Read Political Racial Code
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13386-how-to-read-political-racial-code
Mark that just won't cut it. I am considered liberal, and I am white and I don't think for a minute that I am discriminating against myself. I'd rethink that mindspeak you just wrote a bit. It sounds like you are trying to convince undecided whites to vote against the current president. We have already read stories about this approach from people and that they will try to use it to create further confusion. Sorry. not buying it.
We will keep having to choose from the 'lesser of two evils' as long as the electoral process is privatized. If 'We, the People', choose to finance the electoral process, we can eliminate the prostitute Supreme Court's decision of Citizens United. Who ever pays for the elections controls who gets elected, and controls them after the elections.
Democrats want to do away with the Second Amendment, and Republicans want to do away with the Middle Class. The Liberals discriminate against me because I am White, the Republicans discriminate against me because I am disabled. Who can I vote for? Both offend me.
We must nationalize the electoral process to regain populist control of our body politic and our own lives. We must forbid private financing, (donations), of elections and only allow public funding and public control of the entire process before we can have real Statesmen and Stateswomen to vote for.
Just for a moment . Work with me here folks.
Nightmare scenario. Romney (liar in chief) elected. Steven King horror moment. Romney gets sick. Ryan ,the ignoramous. PRESIDENT! God help us all. Hardly a experienced ,level headed substitute!!.(replacing a totally clueless store front dummy)
No foreign policy .(voted FOR Iraq War,that is it!) No respect for women. (barefoot and pregnancy for all)
One question. he supports personhood.(would have denied Romney grandchildren as IVF,would be illegal) Have Huckabee explain that to the the ignorami.in chief.!
I think that the GOP is a product of their own dumbing down our educational system. The GOP has been short changing education for decades. These guys seem to believe the religious stupidstitions that many religions preach, like the earth is only 6000 years old, women got man into trouble because of that apple, etc. They believe the voodoo economics that trickle down works. They have lots of money. See! It worked. Look at all that money these corporations keep giving me. See! It's working. They have the money and it's tricking down to me.
Isn't "GOP Intellectuals" an oxymoron?
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