No Campus For Republicans

Share:

It’s been nearly two years since the University of Missouri was taken over by radical race agitators, but it’s still suffering the consequences of the turmoil.

Just this week, it was reported that Mizzou was “temporarily” shuttering seven dormitories due to plummeting student attendance. It was also cutting 400 jobs — including a few non-tenured faculty — in order to cope with the 35 percent decline in student enrollment. That was an even bigger fall from the 2016 school year’s staggering 25 percent decrease in enrollment.

It appears that fewer kids want to go to a campus that is notorious for caving into leftist protesters and letting them set the university’s agenda. But this alienation from previously admired universities isn’t just an issue for Mizzou — it’s an issue plaguing all of higher education.

As revealed in another bit of news this week, average Republicans are starting to look with disdain upon higher education, according to the latest Pew Research study.

By a strong majority — 58 percent — Republicans think American colleges are not a good influence on America. This contrasts with the large number of Democrats — 72 percent — who still see higher education as a noble institution.

Pew found that the number of Republicans who had favorably viewed American colleges had dramatically dropped — in just two years. In 2015, a majority of GOP voters — 54 percent — still saw higher education as a good thing. Now, more Republicans think it is a bad thing than a good thing.

To those who think that this stat confirms Republican voters are backward troglodytes, the GOP-leaning folks who had actually attended college were more likely to think these institutions are bad for America. First-hand experience seems to have brought on this negative conclusion rather than sheer ignorance.

The study is a stark reminder of how much things have changed in our society. For one, the idea of a President Donald Trump was still thought impossible and colleges had not yet fallen victim to riots and hostile takeovers.

We’re a different country now than we were before Trump came down the escalator to announce his presidential run. A heightened awareness of campus issues is one of the major trends in society that has likely contributed to more Republicans disapproving of universities.

Mizzou’s unrest in the Fall of 2015 was one of the chief catalysts for this rising concern with higher education. Left-wing students — along with the help of over 30 striking football players — forced out the university’s president over wildly exaggerated claims of “systemic racism” occurring at the school. These horrifying incidents included a crude swastika made out of poop being discovered in a dorm bathroom and a protest leader nudging the president’s vehicle during a parade.

That was enough to kick out Mizzou’s top official, however, and students promptly celebrated their triumph by having a massive safe space in the middle of campus. Infamously, a professor threatened a journalist with violence for entering that safe space.

Things at colleges have only gotten worse since then. Trump’s election convinced several universities that they need to turn into “sanctuary campuses” that disobey federal immigration law in order to appease their distraught students. Multiple right-leaning speakers — such as internet provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and scholar Charles Murray — have been met with violence when they’ve appeared on campus. Threats of violence have forced the cancellation of other speakers.

And in the most extreme example of campus insanity, racial agitators at Evergreen State University decided to take the title of my book, “No Campus for White Men,” literally and kick out all Caucasian students and faculty for a day. When one professor protested that insane idea, leftist students staged a hostile takeover of the university and essentially held several faculty members hostage in order to earn acceptance of their racist demands.

To the average person with a teenage son or daughter, seeing these events would make you second-guess taking out another mortgage to pay for your child to attend college. What are these kids learning that makes them see racism everywhere and feel the need to push such radical agendas? Is it worth the 50k in student loan debt just for your child to learn about how America is an evil, white supremacist society?

That’s why it shouldn’t come as a shock so many Republicans are suspicious of higher education. The ones with college degrees who have a greater distrust of these institutions know first hand that they are no longer the vaunted gateways to the middle class. Often, they are simply indoctrination centers that leave you heavily in debt and feeling unwelcome for your right-wing beliefs.

No one wants to fork over the skyrocketing cost of tuition if all they learn is that there are 37 genders and the need to check their white privilege.

That encapsulates the raw deal a college education is increasingly becoming. The average starting salary for recent college grads ($36,000) roughly equals the average amount of student loan debt that alum is burdened with ($35,000).

It’s hard to enjoy the life of the middle class when you’re enslaved to student loan debt all your life — all for an education you found to be mostly worthless.

Pundits and commentators bemoan how President Trump is undermining America’s institutions, yet they often overlook how rotten many of these institutions are. Why are citizens beholden to value institutions they view as hostile towards red America and offering little in value?

The idea that everyone should go to college is a recent invention. It could be a short-lasting one, too, if campus insanity and exorbitant tuition become the defining features of higher education.

Follow Scott on Twitter and purchase his new book, “No Campus for White Men.”

[contentcards url=”http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/14/no-campus-for-republicans/” target=”_blank”]

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

Share:
No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

2021 © True Pundit. All rights reserved.