Damn it, Jim! I was all set to use the elephant in the room metaphor and then you went and stole it from me, er, um used it first.

Anyhoo, here’s my elephant:

The Republican Party right now is barely about any kind of conservative ideology. The party barely seems to have a rational basis for existence outside of a cult of personality and a quest for power for its own sake.

I think it goes without saying that education helps people see that. Anyone learning the art of critical thinking could not watch Fox News and listen to senior Republican leaders without their eyebrows dancing in a permanent state of twitchiness.

I’m no fan of conservative ideas, don’t get me wrong, but I rarely see intellectually rigorous conservative ideas even mentioned by Republican leaders. So the idea that universities are biased against those ideas is … irrelevant at best?

If and when the Republican Party starts standing for conservative ideas again, then maybe their leaders can start complaining about liberal bias in education.

But when they stand instead for ludicrous lies about elections being stolen, about disenfranchising minority voters, about suppressing the history of the United States, etc., how do they suppose educated people will respond?

Anyone with an interest in critical thinking would have to look on them with deep suspicion. With a liberal/conservative rift having almost nothing to do with it.