Delusions of Supremacy

Tom Elia at the New Editor dug up this self-parodying gem in response to Paul Krugman's smug post "An Academic Question" in the NY Times:

To the Editor:

Paul Krugman ("An Academic Question," column, April 5) is correct that the lack of conservative faculty members in college is caused not through bias but by deficiencies in conservative ideology.

From the laissez-faire, anti-unionism of late-19th-century Republicans to the melding of those trends in today's neoconservative movement, the result of conservative ideology has almost always been deleterious for the majority of Americans.

Academics look at evidence and come to conclusions. Today's conservatives start with a conclusion and then try to find anything to support that conclusion to the exclusion of all contrary evidence. Their arguments tend to fall apart under the lightest scrutiny.

It is no wonder that the vast majority of well-educated academics are "liberal."

Brandon Bittner

Royersford, Pa., April 6, 2005

Mr. Bittner may assume liberal superiority all he wants, the fact remains that though liberals dominant the university, this ideological domination is quickly destroyed by real world market forces once students leave the academy. If liberal ideology were as superior as both Mr. Krugman and Mr. Bittner haughtily opine, then college graduates would not only emerge from universities with a liberal ideology, they would retain that ideology far after graduation and would be quite successful in the professional world.

But that supremacy doesn't exist, does it? The vast majority of industry leaders are capitalists, not marxists. In fact, the vast majority of most businesses, from industry leaders down through the "tail" are capitalists, rejecting liberal egalitarian theology out of hand.

In addition to not surviving contact with the business world, liberalism doesn't well tolerate contact with the ballot box. Liberals holding a supermajority in academia, and therefore, this "superior" ideology should then dominate American life and politics across the board. Yet, conservatives and moderates dominate every level of government as voters consistently reject liberalism across the vast majority of the country.

Mr. Krugman and Mr. Bittner are welcome to fondle their delusions of liberal supremacy in the academy. It is the final place it exists.