I really do not understand what the fuss is about down at Duke. Some students are surprised that the majority of their professors are registered Democrats?
Oh the horror! Oh the…Oh, give me a break. This is nothing new, nothing surprising, and in reality no story. Even in the extremely conservative state of Idaho the universities were overwhelmingly liberal. For the most part the faculty, staff and a significant percentage of the student body identified themselves as, campaigned for and I imagine voted for the Democratic party (or the more liberal candidate at least). I can say however that with the exception of one English professor, it never was an issue in any classes. Definitely not in any Philosophy or History courses. I guess BSU simply has better professors across the board than Duke. (Sarcasm folks, though I will accept that many BSU professors are every bit as good as those from any other university including Duke.) While I’m not sure how Duke hires it’s professors, some how I am sure that their knowledge in their particular field and their teaching ability are the top two requirements considered — which is just as it should be.
As an odd sidenote — “Liberal”, “Conservative”, “Left” and “Right” are broad terms when defining a political ecology as complex and large as the one in the United States. In Texas I was identified as a moderate conservative, in Idaho I was considered a Conservative Democrat (whatever that is), yet in Connecticut I would be considered very conservative. In reality I have views that are hard to reconcile as either liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican. In the survey at Political Survey I fall just left of center and a touch on the pragmatic side. Using their normalized scale I score -0.0584 in the left/right axis and +0.0036 in the pragmatism axis.
To tell the truth, that is what bothers me so much about the primaries and the current crop of Democratic party candidates (or should I say the nominee)… issues. I want to know where you stand on the issues. I want to know your voting record as well. Based on the limited information that was available online, in the newspapers and from the pathetic media soundbites, I would have voted for Edwards in the primaries. Unfortunately it appears that he will not be an option this fall.
(and yes I have taken the The Political Compass survery as well — according to that survey I am a leftist (-2.96) libertarian (-2.56) .)
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