USC Sheds Its Conservative Image

When I first saw this article's tagline, I was worried. I thought for a minute they were talking about the University of South Carolina. But never mind that.

The next thought that went through my head was, Gina Goodhill? Sounds like a Bond girl. Let's see what she looks like. Hrrm. Not bad. Maybe that should say doffs her sweatshirt, but we won't get into that on a family-safe blog. Anyways, let's fisk into this, shall we?

[Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics director Ann] Crigler said that when she came to USC in 1988 she assumed the school would be very conservative.

Yes, and I'm sure you set straight to work fixing that, eh Ms. Crigler? Got to fight whitey and the power, I'm sure. Never content to control the entire State, but also you and your little dog too, hmm? I bet this change you've spotted warms your black little heart. Peh.

[USC Democrats president Deryn Sumner] said recruiting Democrats for the club has gotten easier every year. "Each incoming class is more politically aware and less conservative," Sumner said.

Thus breath-eth the old meme of conservative=stupid/ignorant/whatever. When I headed to my undergraduate institution, I was gradually more and more politically aware, and my loathing of the left---as opposed to people who ought to be Republicans, like Zell Miller---only increased. I think it had something to do with actually meeting some of the people who espoused left-wing ideas. Troubling, and downright puzzling. Greetings from Planet Reality, young collegiate Democrats!

Anyways, Miss Sumner also repeats the hoary old chestnut that "awareness"=Democrat voter. I suppose that's a good thing, because it shows us that she's a) unreasonable, and therefore does not need to be part of the conversation between adults on how best to run the country and b) ignorant of the lessons of reality---about half a country doesn't agree with you---and blinded by ideology. At any rate, I'm glad Miss Sumner has exposed herself as intellectually immature, so that we don't have to waste time trying to figure that fact out.

This article keeps getting better and better:

USC students are far brighter and much more discerning than they were when I first came here," [Richard Dekmejian, political science professor] said. "A lot of people don't know what's happened here, how the grade point average has gone up.

Yes, you stupid conservatives! Stop dragging our GPA down. Doesn't USC practice race-based discrimination in its admissions practices? If so, then how come these ostensibly-inferior students have managed to a) raise the GPA and b) torpedo the ranks of the stupid conservatives, all at the same time? At the same time, I'm tempted to suggest that grade inflation of one sort or the other, or the fear of grading a minority student down has led to the "increase" in student GPA.

Professor Dekmejian also believes that there is "strong opposition" to Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and that said opposition will lead many students to vote. I'll go out on a limb here and guess that he means that a vote, period, means a vote for a Democrat. He also steals a page from Terry McAuliffe's 2002 playbook (probably dug out of the trash somewhere) in regards to the 2000 presidential campaign as he notes that the election "strengthened students' determination to vote". This doesn't really apply to me, since I started voting in 1996 and have done so every single time, but I figure maybe somewhere some conservative college students noticed that the Democrats had sent the poster child for vote fraud (i.e. a Daley from Chicago) forward to champion their cause and decided to make sure that such racialist crap spouted about black disenfranchisement wouldn't sway future elections. Anyways, here's an interesting quip from ProfDek:

"Students are very aware that U.S. democracy has ... weaknesses," Dekmejian said.

Yes, weaknesses like allowing nitwits like him to play in the voting booth. I suppose the weakness that he sees is that this country is a republic and not a democracy, and so therefore there are occasional moments when someone other than Democrats win elections. Darn, those annoying elections that that annoying Constitution says we have to have! Surely, ProfDek would rather have enlightened sovereigns governing by their prior discernment of the general will than those annoying Republicans who occasionally do what the people shout and scream about long enough.

Mediocrity, thy name is USC's political science faculty.

Miss Sumner apparently got ahold of Terry McAuliffe's playbook as well:

"Everyone in general has been paying more attention just because the election of 2000 was so notorious and infamous. People are going to saying, 'Remember what happened four years ago,'" Sumner said.

This is America. Our electorate has trouble recalling what happened four days ago, much less four years. But if you want to go down that road, go right on ahead. It's proven to work, just like it did in 2002. Be my guest. I'd love to have enough Republicans in Congress to be able to override left-wing nitwittery, and enough to write men like Lincoln Chaffee off.

The next howler comes from the almost-aptly named head of USC's Dean movement. Miss Cao, perhaps you forgot to put the 't' in your name:

Bich Ngoc Cao, president of USC for Dean and managing editor of the alternative newspaper The Trojan Horse, said she saw previously uninvolved students participate in politics in response to the recall, and especially in response to Proposition 54, which she said made many students feel personally affected.

[Annoying California local politics snipped.]

"People I know are getting involved in really, really deep levels that I haven't seen before. It's dawning on people that if we don't do something this year, next year we're going to re-elect [President Bush]."

OK, so my snide remark about her name aside, let me mangle something from Star Trek: "Brave words. I've heard them before, from a horde of candidates. Their offices are all Republican now..." (Stop it. Just stop it. --Ed.) Her If We Don't Do Something quip sounds like it's amateur Hunter S. Thompson circa 1971, when he's going on and on about how the country, The Road, and a lot of other things are Doomed by 1976 if Nixon is re-elected. However, HST is a lot more interesting to read and laugh at than Miss Cao is.

It's good to know that America's campuses are still thinking like it's 1969. Miss Goodhill, continue polishing your craft and perhaps you'll be ready in a couple of years to take your place in the clueless pantheon of mindless journalistas robotically parroting the Democrat line as if it were your own creed. If you wise up in the meantime, a gal with a name like that ought to see if James Bond is busy for an evening.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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