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| Home Front: Politix |
| Washington Times' Wes Pruden: Drowning the elites in the gene pool |
| 2016-11-13 |
| [Wash Times] The 2016 elections are a gift that keeps on giving, and nothing has been sweeter than watching the chattering class being taken back to school. Rarely has smug arrogance been so sharply rebuked. It’s delicious to watch. Yum, yum. The pundits and talking heads particularly relish the finding in the exit polls that most of Donald Trump’s votes appeared to be coming from white working-class stiffs "without a college education." What should you expect from someone who had never seen the inside of the Student Union? A college education is a fine thing, and a few years with access to a library and a conscientious professor is a reward that pays dividends for a lifetime. "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," as a familiar television commercial once reminded us. Or as an earlier vice president, Dan Quayle, put it, "it’s a terrible thing to lose your mind." But a college education is no substitute for a native appetite for knowledge, wherever found and however acquired. Harry S Truman was one of our most lettered presidents; no other president and few historians had his knowledge and understanding of the office and of the presidents before him. Yet he never attended college, and had to go to work behind a brace of mules on the family farm and could not finish high school. He turned out to be one of the nation’s most effective presidents, presiding at a particularly troubled time, first in war and then in tense peace. Abraham Lincoln read the Bible and borrowed books to read by the flickering light of the fireside. "Educated" or not, he turned out pretty well. A college education is not a requisite for casting an intelligent ballot, either. William F. Buckley, a Yale man and an educated consumer of the book of knowledge, said he "would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone book than by the entire faculty of Harvard." Nevertheless, the book-proud sometimes never get over a sheepskin. David Brooks, a columnist for The New York Times, despaired on election eve of the grim consequences of enabling the white, the less educated and those deprived of a college education to cancel the votes of the credentialed. Hillary calls them the deplorables. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #9 The exit polls were wrong -- most of those who voted for Mr. Trump declined to be interviewed for the same reasons thwt they declined to be polled. An Nahar has some statistics: Here is a look at who voted for whom in the biggest political upset in American politics for generations: - Middle Class and Educated - Half of Americans who are considered middle class, making $100,000 a year or more, voted for the 70-year-old billionaire according to USA Today's exit polls. Forty-three percent of people with college degrees backed the Republican, although post-graduates voted overwhelmingly for Clinton, the Democrat, at 58 percent to 35 percent. "We wanted to send a message that there's too much government ruling our life and that had to stop," said Rolando Chumaceiro, a family doctor who lives in affluent White Plains, New York. Lower income voters leaned towards Clinton but their support had eroded since President Barack Obama's election in 2012, perhaps fueled in part by resentment of the high costs associated with Obamacare. More about women and minorites at the link, for those interested. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-11-13 21:56 |
| #8 Your post gets a thumbs up. |
| Posted by: Glaviter Black5680 2016-11-13 15:54 |
| #7 When I hire people I don't look for education, I look for the capability to learn. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2016-11-13 13:41 |
| #6 The problem I found was some shave-tail LT's felt they couldn't learn anything from a non-officer. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2016-11-13 09:20 |
| #5 Just doesn't make sense to have a senior NCO with a college degree and 18 years of experience under a new shave tail 2LT with a college degree and zip experience It's part of the job of the Navy Chief to 'edumacate', sometimes bluntly, the young Ensign. That's the difference between them and the NCO. And I, for one, appreciated it. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-11-13 09:04 |
| #4 I needed a degree for OCS. Things must have changed. A few college hours were the only general requirement back in the old days which could be picked up at most installations after hours. However, back then, unlike today you didn't need a college education to be a senior NCO. It became a discriminator when I was retiring. Just doesn't make sense to have a senior NCO with a college degree and 18 years of experience under a new shave tail 2LT with a college degree and zip experience. The institution doesn't want to address that fundamental contradiction. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-11-13 08:18 |
| #3 Evolution don't need no diploma. Man up, woosie babys. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2016-11-13 06:34 |
| #2 I needed a degree for OCS. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2016-11-13 06:18 |
| #1 The comments are filled with sneering elitists who, even after Trump, still don't get it. It's really sad. |
| Posted by: Thumper Dribble5791 2016-11-13 03:44 |