What has happened to Wesleyan?

Colleges & Universities Wesleyan University
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<p>Mythmom wrote:

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<p>Right you are, mythmom. Once again NESCAC ranks highly among “Kennedy-caliber” pols, bankers and “public intellectuals” of the past half-century. Heck, the three Maine colleges alone are responsible for the lion’s share of that state’s Congressional delegation over the years:</p>

<p>Herbert Lehman (Williams) - ex-Governor of New York; co-founder of Lehman brothers.
Felix Rohatyn (Middlebury) - Senior partner investment house Lazard-Freres.
Thomas Eagleton - (Amherst) - ex-Senator from Missouri; one-time candidate for Vice-President.
Robert E. Hunter (Wesleyan) - former U.S. Ambassador to NATO
Edward Muskie (Bates) former Senator from Maine and Democratic nominee for President.
George Mitchell (Bowdoin) - former Senator from Maine.
William Cohen (Bowdoin) - former Senator from Maine and ex-Sec’y of Defense
Doris Koons Goodwin (Colby) - noted historian and frequent television and radio commentator.</p>

<p>All moderate Democrats.</p>

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<p>Uh, I think you missed the sardonic if not sarcastic point of mythmom in her reference to our vietnam policies - I don’t think she meant it as a compliment. Rather differently, by a lot. Her larger point is that there were idiots on the Democratic establishment side too, incl. those educated or otherwise ‘from’ Haaahvud. So I wouldn’t use her point as a jumping off point to laud NESCAC, although what you say is ok by itself. But there haven’t been conservative democrats in this country for decades - scoop jackson was maybe the last one. </p>

<p>Also, I fail to see why conservatives must always by ‘principled’ or ‘honorable’ while leftists, incl. most of the Democratic party, get to be unprincipled scaliwags or indeed scumbags, and everyone here snickers or smiles knowingly about it. It’s the same jive that allowed Jack Kennedy to get away with being the philanderer he was. Too bad Dan Quayle didn’t stick that up Lloyd Bentsen’s pipe when it was claimed ‘he was no Jack Kennedy’ as if that were a bad thing. Oh well, we always remember the best comebacks after the party’s over.</p>

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<p>vassardad wrote:

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<p>Sarcasm duly noted.
Hey, my take on NESCAC is amply recorded elsewhere:

</p>

<p>But, as someone else noted almost immediately after I made that remark, notoriety is not why someone would be attracted to a small college. Rather, I submit that NESCAC’s reputation is rooted in their sense of themselves, their sense of place, their sense of mission. In other words, somewhere along the way in their 150 plus years of existence they have managed to acquire that certain something people refer to as, “prestige”. And like it or not, proximity to the ruling class is an indication of prestige.</p>

<p>But, i’m not here to laud NESCAC on its success at branding; I was merely trying to answer the question, “Why are there so few Republicans at Wesleyan?” and I think that as both you and Mythmom have usefully pointed out, the watershed was probably Vietnam when The Establisment effectively split in half over the issue of global intevention in proxy wars against the Soviet Union. Moderate Republicans tended to be on one side of the issue and so-called, “Goldwater Republicans” were on the other.</p>

<p>The same thing happened with their Democratic counterparts, but, unfortunately for the Republicans, their very success as the antii-Communist party left them with very few navigational tools after the fall of the Berlin Wall.</p>

<p>My hunch is that as moderate Republicans fell by the wayside on many college campuses, their places were filled by moderate Democrats. The real tension at Wesleyan isn’t between the right and the left, but between a comfortable suburban success narrative and an insurgent left.</p>

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<p>"But there haven’t been conservative democrats in this country for decades - scoop jackson was maybe the last one. </p>

<p>“Also, I fail to see why conservatives must always by ‘principled’ or ‘honorable’ while leftists, incl. most of the Democratic party, get to be unprincipled scaliwags or indeed scumbags, and everyone here snickers or smiles knowingly about it.”</p>

<hr>

<p>The Democratic Party now is as conservative as was the Republican Party 30 years ago. Both major parties today are corporate-owned, and liberals, in general, don’t own large mega-corporations.</p>

<p>As to which side has abandoned principle, and why the conservative movement as a whole today needs to relearn how to be honorable, all one has to do is click and count:</p>

<p>[PolitiFact</a> | Statements we say are Pants on Fire!](<a href=“http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/rulings/pants-fire/]PolitiFact”>Fact-checks | PolitiFact)</p>

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<p>A few corrections re post #182: </p>

<p>William Cohen was actually a moderate Republican appointed to Defense Sec’y by a Democrat.</p>

<p>That’s <em>Edmund</em> Muskie.</p>

<p>And it’s Doris <em>Kearns</em> Goodwin.</p>

<p>No more two martini lunches for me.</p>

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<p>There are Democrats in Congress who vote most often with Republicans known as blue dogs.</p>

<p>The Cuban missile crisis gave Dems creds as anti-Communist as well, and the most hated “establishment figure” was Lyndon Johnson who did have a good track record on domestic issues.</p>

<p>I think the marriage of fiscal policies with a conservative social agenda is a difficult marriage at best and the heart of the current difficulties with the Republican party even though it did pick up former Bible Belt Democrats.</p>

<p>The Democrats were helped by the occupy movement which may be completely ineffectual by gave the Democrats a language to whisper about class, something usually verboten in American politics.</p>

<p>Re Wesleyan – neighborhoods, schools get reputations and like-minded folks tend to flock together. (It is also true that some folks are ghettoized, but I think that’s a different conversation.)</p>

<p>Since Wesleyan has a low admit rate, great education, and impressive alums enhancing the schools reputation, I doubt think the school has worries.</p>

<p>As for a fuller dialogue, we are having real difficulty discussing our areas of difference throughout the society and most discourse is rather polarized.</p>

<p>We all seem to hold our own truths as self-evident.</p>

<p>If Wesleyan can manage it, bravo! And most of the Northeast schools have similar biases, though maybe not so forcefully expressed as Wes’s sometimes is.</p>

<p>I think this discussion has really been interesting, but since it is having less relevance to Wesleyan perhaps this is not the place to continue it.</p>

<p>Hm. I don’t think I’ve ever had a martini. But then again, to the shock and awe of the students in the colleges classes I teach, I’ve never finished a beer either. However, I would never say no to champagne.</p>

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<p>^ There used to be some Blue Dog Dems. The wing nut Pelosi ran them out of congress.</p>

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<p>Closing thread that has become political.</p>