The Less You Know

Last year, I posted a couple of articles I’d written on the Huffington Post over a decade ago, both about what I called the Republican Party’s War on Education” which I said had been going on for over 60 years.  (Now, 70 years.)  And no, that's not hyperbole, as the 2011 articles explained in detail.  And I noted last year how fresh the decades-old articles still read, with extreme-right attacks on doctors and science over things like Climate Change, vaccines, pandemics, and far-right violence and outrage at school board meetings over curriculums teaching that there was actually racism in America, and to ban books and GOP-backed state laws to ban book and sue schools for teaching things that make children uncomfortable. and more.  (A Fun Fact I mentioned was that Math, history, English, and science tend to make most students uncomfortable.  Recess is one of the few things at school that does not.  Even lunch makes some kids uncomfortable at school when cliques form.)

And it’s all the more fresh, I should add, given what we see done in just the past year with even stricter laws regulating education in Florida and a teacher being fired for showing a Disney movie, and a county in Texas threatening to close the public library if certain books weren’t allowed by the court to be banned, and more.
 
But this has always been my own “War” theory – backed by evidence – although I know others have talked about this overall reality, as well.
 
So, it was so great to see someone highly visible on the far right to acknowledge it too, in his own way.  And bluntly.
 
That would be Fox “News” host Jesse Watters who said the following on the air about a week ago for millions to see.  And all the better, not only did he demean education as a principle, but slammed education as being problematic for the Republican Party!  No, really.  Honest.  Initially, I was just going to quote him, but then I realized there was a good chance people wouldn’t believe me.  Or think I was quoting satire from The Onion.  But no, here he is -- 

​"The more education you have, the more likely you are to vote for a Democrat..."
 
Only to the GOP is "the more education you have" a bad thing.  Yes, I understand why, but still how bizarre.
 
And to be clear, this isn’t something new in the Republican Party.  This has been going on since 1952.  That’s when Republicans big criticism of Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson was that he was “an egghead.”  Meaning smart.  Educated.  A bad thing.  And still bad when he was still smart and ran again against Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
 
And then in 1960, President Kennedy was slammed for having a “Harvard Mafia.”  Y’know, advisors who were…well, smart.  So smart that they were dangerous.  And you can't trust those smart people who go to good colleges.

When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, he hated those smart people who go to colleges so much that students made his Enemies List.  And later his "get tough" policies on student dissent (including wanting the Secret Service to beat up protestors) resulted in Republican governor Jim Rhodes sending armed troops sent the campus of Kent State University -- and four "enemy" undergraduates were killed.

In 1988, George Bush claimed to be "the Education President" -- yet on an campaign stop in Los Angeles told a rally of service employees that not everyone had to go to college.  A valid sentiment, certainly, but for a candidate supposedly promoting himself as “the Education President,” it leaked his true feelings.

And in 2000, George W. Bush failed to fund his "No Child Left Behind" education program.
 
And it’s continued on and on to the present day in the GOP, attacking education, scientists, doctors, school boards, books.
 
But at least we now have Jesse Watters and Fox “News” making it clear to their viewers who might otherwise if I said it or some Democratic politician said it --
 
"The more education you have, the more likely you are to vote for a Democrat..."
 
And said as if having more education is a bad thing.
 
Making this all the more pointed is that in 2012, a Farleigh-Dickinson study showed that people who watch Fox “News" know less than people who don't even watch any news at all.  As a result, many of the base have been pushed to embrace ignorance.
 
By the way, if you would like to read the two original articles, you can find them here.
 
Every Child Left Behind
March 29, 2011
 
The War on Education
December 1, 2011
 
Having a 70 year War on Education explains a lot.  Starting with raising to near-God-like status a Donald Trump who during his time in office had over 30,000 documented lies.  And explains his advisor Kellyanne Conway insisting there are “alternative facts.”  And explains why today the Republican base follows the word of an anonymous Q who they quite-literally have no idea who he or she is. 
 
All that comes – and only comes -- with a political party that has been demeaning education for 70 years.  And, conversely, since it is the result of trashing education, pushing ignorance.

And hey, don't blame me for saying it.  There's Jesse Watters saying it live on Fox "News."