As an administrator of this blog, I can view links made to NextGenGOP.com itself or to particular posts here. Today, I had intended to tackle the latest folly espoused by the Speaker of the House. However, a link made to a post on this site instead drew my attention.

The Political Climate blog linked to a post here by Abby Alger from March of last year. However, it seems that the comments following that post are what drew the ire of the other blog. Since I commented on the post referenced, and the discussion seems to have been the focus of the decision to link here, I feel that the need to respond is pertinent.

On the merits of the broader Political Climate post, the author and I incidentally seem to agree; that conservative charges of bias in academia are overstated and unhelpful. College students generally are not necessarily that politically attuned. We agree further that students inclined towards political science are more likely to be civically attuned.

So long as institutions of higher learning instill in their students critical thinking skills, allegations of bias in the classroom are ridiculous. The criticism offered to the spinning of a poll conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute is quite valid; there should be no surprise that young adults are more socially liberal than many of their older counterparts. This topic has been touched on in previous NextGenGOP posts and discussions by various authors.    

However, just as it is bogus to cite a poll of college students as proof of liberal biases in the classroom, the absurd parallel drawn on the Political Climate between ethnocultural minorities and the disability community is equally bogus. Even as the author allegedly favors ethnocultural diversity, there is no way the quoted passage below is valid to this discussion as it compares apples to oranges.

We celebrate racial diversity; one does not celebrate a slow child merely for being different.  We offer him extra resources to help him overcome his challenges.   That process of achieving against the odds is laudable, but wallowing in inferiority is not something to be applauded.  Especially when there are ways to train your mind. 

Political colorblindness has nothing to do bona fide needs-based support, and everything to with upholding the best ideals of racial equality. If someone has a real need for unique help, then that assistance should be available to them. However, a wealthy black student lacking developmental disabilities ought to have neither more nor fewer political rights than his equally wealthy white counterpart also lacking developmental disabilities. Fortunately for all concerned, members of Congress from both parties are tackling issues faced by individuals with disabilities.

Ethnic and cultural diversity are valuable and desirable both inside and beyond academia. Nonetheless, such forms of diversity are not all of those important to the ability to think critically. Furthermore, such forms of diversity are judged too narrowly if differing perspectives are truly the aims sought by liberals in their promotion of politics based on race.  The 2000 United States Census found that German-Americans (15.2%) and Irish-Americans (10.8%) both outnumbered African-Americans (8.8%), the largest racial minority group in the country. All three of these groups, albeit to vastly different extents, have faced prejudices earlier in American history. In Census 2010, Hispanic Americans are expected to outnumber African-Americans. Thus, to value one particular cultural group over another of demographic significance in the country is silly without specific context. Yet, to many on the left it seems as if color matters more than other defining factors.

Religious background can add another layer of diversity insofar as fostering greater understanding is concerned. But, religious background or lack thereof is rather more crucial to what is arguably the core aspect of critical thinking; competition among ideas. Spirituality can be an absurd topic to debate as there is nothing to be proven in such discussions. Though rather not absurd, the discussion of political ideas involves competing visions and philosophies, many of which also cannot be proven despite a (theoretical) basis in fact for such notions.

Many on the right may miss the point when it comes to the value of post-secondary education, but so those on the left when they prefer differences in ancestry to contrasts in ideas. While it would not be accurate to draw ideological parallels in these terms, the Soviet Union championed ethnic and cultural diversity just as long as the various groups shared a common ideology. While this does not mean that liberals are communists (sorry Glenn Beck) it does mean that race and critical thinking are generally unimportant concepts with respect to one another.

Republicans, however, must do a better job of reaching out to various communities in the country where its following is presently lacking. To be clear, the goal of such outreach is to grow the party, add to it more perspectives, and enhance its base of support. Despite what some may believe, people of a particular color or culture do not all think alike, as the Conservative Political Action Conference this year demonstrated.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010
• In Defense of Michael Steele - July 9th, 2010
• McDonald and Kagan - July 2nd, 2010
• The Petraeus Dilemma. - June 23rd, 2010