This unsettling proto-totalitarian tendency, reported by Pat Rynard on Iowa Starting Line, an Iowan political news source, fits right in with the GOP’s desperate need to reshape society into its extremist image:
The party affiliation on your voter registration card could block you from employment at Iowa’s state universities were a newly proposed bill by Senator Mark Chelgren to become law. Senate File 288, proposed by the Ottumwa legislator, could bring about a Soviet-style purge of liberal-leaning college staff in Iowa. Chelgren wants to impose an ideological litmus test in order to create a “partisan balance,” based on how Iowa has voted in past elections.
The legislation proposes that a “person shall not be hired as a professor or instructor member of the faculty at such an institution if the person’s political party affiliation on the date of hire would cause the percentage of faculty belonging to one political party to exceed by ten percent the percentage of faculty belonging to the other political party.”
Source: Gallup
Politics simply should not play a direct a part in education as this. I would have to ask State Senator Chelgren if he’s really so certain that his conservative ideas are that much inferior to those that might be held – but not even taught – by the professors at the State universities of Iowa? After all, we’re talking about the marketplace of ideas – not the gargling funnel of ideological rectitude. Students may evaluate ideas on their merits and choose accordingly.
Of course, the blood of the GOP may be running a bit cold. While the GOP currently holds a slight lead over the Democrats, it’s down from historical highs, and I think, given the GOP’s continuing slide into extremist ideology, more members will leave the party for the Independents ranks. And, of course, the Trump disaster is front and center – driving away the doubtful, even as extremist elements pour in and, in some cases, assume positions of authority. While Mr. Bartlett may have missed the subtle point that losing the popular vote doesn’t mean losing the electoral vote, he may still end up correct that Mr. Trump will be the end of the current incarnation of the GOP in one tremendous thud, and that it will be rebuilt by those much like his moderate, serious self.
The demographics of the two parties also contributes to the temperature of the GOP blood, as these charts from 2016 show. The left chart is interesting in that it shows nearly 60% of GOP voters are age 60+, suggesting the cohort that couldn’t manage a winning Presidential run, popular vote variant, is going to start dying off soon. The Democrats and sympathizers are at roughly 50% in the same category. Meanwhile, down in the critical youngest bracket, the Democrats are doing better than the GOP. Normally, I’d shrug and note that as voters get older, they become more conservative. However, given the extremism of the GOP, I suspect the youngest generation will generally be repulsed by the GOP; it is, in an important sense, a return to a static past, and that just will not do for the youngest generation in general, except for those raised in out of touch, static areas. And you’ll have to be extreme from the get-go to survive, given the herd of RINOs that runs around in that pasture.
And, as noted by many commentators, the diversity of the Democrats is their strength, and that clearly shows in these charts.
So, Senator, are you so afraid of some healthy competition that you’ll try to rig the rules? You do realize, of course, that this has the potential to damage your institutions of higher education, so I have to ask – do you value higher education? Do you want to get the most that you can out of it?
Or is your dedication to ideology going to triumph over your love of State and Nation?
