The discrimination liberals love

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From Ralph Bristow's Daily Dispatch:

Liberals claim to hate discrimination, but of course they don't. They just hate discrimination against some groups. Discrimination against conservatives - that's just fine. And nowhere is it more prevalent than on college campuses.

Consider the latest data from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

· More than half of the professors at both public and private universities described themselves as being either liberal or far left.

· Only 15 percent said they were conservative.

· Just under a third define themselves as middle of the road

One of the reasons universities grant professors tenure -- a lifetime job from which it is almost impossible to be fired -- is to guarantee freedom of expression. But, economist Bruce Bartlett with the National Center for Policy Analysis reports:

· " In practice, the tenure process has become the means by which the left rigorously weeds out conservatives. In many university departments, opposition from a single faculty member is all that is necessary to deny tenure. These days, such a blackball is most likely to be used against a conservative, especially in disciplines such as sociology, history, English and government."


If Bartlett is right, and I suspect he is, university professors are practicing a very aggressive form of discrimination, specifically to weed out opposing views on campus. As a result, parents and taxpayers spend tens of billions of dollars a year to subsidize discrimination against conservatives and indoctrinate today's young people with a steady diet of liberal dogma.


If I had my way, taxpayer support of higher education would stop altogether, but that's a radical notion that will never gain popular favor. I'm not in favor of adding "political beliefs" to the list of things against which public and private institutions may not discriminate. But I do think both taxpayers and parents should know that the prevalence of liberal professors is not accidental. It is that way because of a pattern of discrimination that feeds upon itself and is subsidized by the money you give, through your tuition and your taxes.