One hundred and fifty-seven members of Princeton University’s faculty and staff have made donations big enough to be disclosed for a presidential candidate. Of those 157, only two gave to Romney. The other 155 gave to Obama. Jay Nordlinger thinks that is a problem with Princeton University rather than an indication that there is something wrong with the Republican Party or Mitt Romney. I can’t imagine why an astrophysicist or Nobel Prize-winning economist wouldn’t want to support the party that denies evolution, plate tectonics, and global warming, and espouses Voodoo Economics. Or just take Jay Nordlinger and the National Review. Their hostility to academics is hardly welcoming. Right wing media are a neurotoxin which is why sociology and psychology professors at our elite universities aren’t interested in reading them outside of an experimental context. You spend $40,000 a year to send your kid to Princeton so he can learn something, not so he can sound like Donald Trump. Speaking of which, I am pretty sure the Wharton School would like to revoke Trump’s diploma.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
OT,
I posted this at the end of an older thread.
Anybody have any comment on why Mittens is still campaigning today?
I heard the strategy is too cut the margin of popular vote loss in Ohio and PA. Doing that maybe winning the total popular vote. The Rs would then use it to try to turn electoral votes or totally legitimization 2nd turn (as if they haven’t already. )
because he’s an idiot.
Or that.
Don’t be a cynic.
nalbar
Probably in part, maybe mostly, because he believes the hype – believes he can still pull it out. They all do at this stage of the game. Anyone who runs for Prez has a hyper-inflated sense of their own importance, their destiny, etc. That’s why losing candidates always look so shocked in their concession speeches (as Romney will tonight). Because their dream of themselves was just shattered by the brick wall of reality.
He’s partly campaigning to prevent downticket losses, maybe pump up the popular vote to an extent.
Partly to minimize the shame and humiliation today will bring for him.
Partly because… well… what else is he gonna do?
Although I always liked the story about Harry Truman in 1948. In the afternoon, after he’d voted but before returns started coming in, he went back to his house in Missouri and took a nap(!!!) for a few hours. He went to bed thinking he’d lost. He woke up and found out he’d been re-elected.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much – it’s not going to matter.
I’m not sure what the guy’s point is. That Princeton doesn’t hire enough right-wing faculty and staff? Sounds like affirmative action to me. That the Elitist Liberal Establishment shuns voting for the Rich White Guy (who also is elitist)? Oxymoronic.
Maybe it’s just frustrated flailing at knowing Obama will continue to be President of the United States? After all, we can’t ALL be janitors.
OSU, Case Western, Washington University. I have interviewed many faculty candidates. We do not discuss the political orientation. However, almost none are conservative.
In the B-school, the Law School, the econ dept, and teh engineering schools, you do find conservatives. You almost NEVER find them in social science, natural science, quant science, or the humanities. Several reasons – 1) conservatives have a limited capacity for speculation and intellectual exploration – it’s not part of the conservative thought process 2) most of the people in academia are professional socialists. We survive by sucking off the govt teat – the NIH, NSF, NHC, all the government agencies give out money – it’s socialism, folks.
Everyone who was really conservative eventually left academia, however.
“I can’t imagine why an astrophysicist or Nobel Prize-winning economist wouldn’t want to support the party that denies evolution, plate tectonics, and global warming, and espouses Voodoo Economics.”
Good one, but you can expect the irony to be lost on the likes of Mr. Nordlinger.
Calls to mind that quip about how the line “there are no atheists in foxholes” shows not a problem with atheists but a problem with foxholes.
The interesting thing here is that Princeton DOES have notable conservative faculty, some of whom were frequently brought out as conservative talking heads during this campaign. Robert George, for example. But none of them apparently thought to support the GOP in a significant way monetarily. Really interesting.