I’m a big fan of The News Hour on PBS. One of my favorite segments is the Friday interaction between New York Times Columnist David Brooks and Syndicated Columnist Mark Shields moderated by respected journalist Judy Woodruff.
Today, of course, they were talking about the November 3 Election. I have tremendous respect for the two journalists, the former leans to the right and the former to the left. Brooks was musing about how this race should have been a much easier election for the Democrats to win given the wide spread unpopularity of the sitting president.
Black, Latino, LGBTQ+ voters expressed themselves as individuals showing that they were not homogenous groups that would automatically vote Democrat. Non-college graduate White males voted heavily Republican. The clear message of repudiation that the Democrats were seeking did not materialize in the final vote count. We can debate the reasons why people voted the way they voted.
I want to write briefly about my concern for Brooks’ suggestion that the Republican Party may have found a way to re-define itself by becoming the party of the non-College educated working class. This is a dangerous way to run a country. Divide us on the grounds of education.
Just as I have characterized the Republican Party as the party of the rich, which I still believe is essentially accurate, the Democratic Party would then be characterized as the party of the educated? I certainly hope not. Yale educated, Conservative intellectual William F. Buckley must be shifting in his grave. Buckley was an author, commentator and founder of the magazine National Review that served as a stimulus for political conservatism in 1950’s-60’s before it gained large scale popularity. I think that he would take exception to this characterization of his party.
College educated indicates to me a group of people who, despite their many and varied areas of study, have been trained to think about issues critically, to question and be skeptical of claims made by people and parties. This division along educational lines just simply cannot be allowed to happen in this great country where opportunities exist for every American to advance to the highest levels of their potential and drives.
We will need to put more emphasis on critical thinking skills in K-12 education. This will help foster a more independent thinking and discerning group of American voters without requiring a college education to develop those skills.
Thanks to David Brooks for bringing up this point. It has had a big impact on me. That is a microcosm of what we need in our country right now. The ability to listen to each other and learn from each other. Things that divide us need to discouraged and things that unite us need to be encouraged.
Post Script:
MSNBC called the Presidential Election for Joe Biden at 8:24 a.m. PST. Fox and CNN a few minutes later. Now, we need to allow the legal challenges to go through the process. Then, we can start the hard work of once again becoming the United States of America. God Bless America.