Committee of Correspondence

Politics and principles for a new era.

Name:
Location: Richmond, Virginia, United States

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Education as a first step

Sorry about all the dust--I just flung open the doors because it's time to get out and take part in the conversation about What Comes Next. I'll clean up the mess (links, increased personalization, etc.) over the next few days.

Yesterday, Slate.com's William Saletan wrote a column that attributed the election victory to George W. Bush because of his simplicity. "Bush is a very simple man," wrote Salentan. "You may think that makes him a bad president, as I do, but lots of people don't—and there are more of them than there are of us."

It is quite clear that Salentan is in touch with a reality Democrats need to face head on--that voters across America, especially in the Heartland, resent feeling like they are being condescended to. (And if you find yourself reflexively wishing to correct my grammar in that last sentence, you might want to examine yourself for vestiges of this off-putting intellectual superiority.)

Examine any political discussion board or chatroom after the election, and you'll see reasonable people writing about how happy they were that the "intellectual elitists of the coasts" got their asses handed to them. How the "Michael Moores and Barbra Streisands and Hollwoodites" got what was coming to them.

An us-or-them divide has grown, in which "common folks" feel they are pitted against "the ivory-tower crowd." The former feel the latter lack any common sense to go along with their fancy educations.

Whether the perception is right or not isn't the question; the question is whether its effects are real, and it's pretty clear that they are. It's a lesson Democrats--or whatever new party that rises from the ashes of the election--should heed.

But not the way you might think.

Democrats shouldn't dumb themselves down. Doing so would require knocking out one of the load-bearing walls of the party's philosophical house--that, as Jefferson said, "Light and liberty go together."

However, Democrats and all those who value education do need to acknowledge the divide that has grown and address it head-on. They have to acknowledge that their approach has come to be viewed as "I know what's good for you and you'd be better off if you'd just listen to me." The simple truth is no one likes to hear that.

Instead, they need to retrench and assess the value they put on education, and make the case to the nation of the value of education. I think Democrats would be surprised at how sympathetic most Americans are--I haven't yet met a conservative from the Heartland or anywhere else who seriously plays down the value of education itself. They simply don't want to feel like someone is holding themselves superior because of that education.

Make no mistake--there is a great deal of value in an education. A lack of education is directly what leads to racism, sexism, and religious intolerance. A lack of education is at the heart of Islamist influence--without being equipped with critical thinking skills, an uneducated Muslim is at the mercy of those who tell him or her "how the world is." A lack of education keeps many in the United States in poverty. A lack of education keeps the flames of hatred alive.

So the solution isn't to dumb down. It is to raise everybody's education--and respect for education--up. Not so that those mere groundlings might hold themselves lucky enough to consort with the educational gentry. But because of the intrinsic value of education itself for the individual and the community, so that the seeds of competing ideas have fertile soil.

Forget creating division based on education. Police against a sense of intellectual superiority. The simple message from the Democrats should be this: we honor the education of every man, woman, and child, and strive to improve it in every one in every way. Increased education only helps us all.

Jefferson wrote: "Although I do not, with some enthusiasts, believe that the human condition will ever advance to such a state of perfection as that there shall no longer be pain or vice in the world, yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, and most of all in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is to be effected."

Democrats must return to their principles, and perfect the ability to connect the dots between their principles and the daily lives of all Americans. Only then will they find widespread electoral success again. Education is a great starting place.

Aequitas

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home