General Assembly Democrats
Once upon a time, liberal opinion leaders deemed that the lack of a college education made a politician a “man of the people.” As an example of how inessential a sheepskin was, they often pointed to the performance of President Harry S. Truman, architect of post-World War II containment policy of the Soviet Union. But times have changed and some have decided that the lack of a college degree disqualifies Wisconsin Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker from the White House. Walker, it turns out, completed only three years of college before taking a full-time job. The lack of that essential fourth year of study justifies describing him as a “drop out,” with all the loaded connotations that phrase entails, and raises strong concerns about his fitness for the top spot.
I find it fascinating that liberals, who profess to be tribunes of the common man, consider a bachelor’s degree to be such a critical credential for high office — and the more elite and rarefied the institution, the better qualified the candidate.
General Assembly Republicans
Which brings me to the Bacon’s Rebellion chart of the day, purloined from the StatChat blog. Drawing from Washington Post data, Luke Juday has created an interactive chart allowing readers to compare the educational qualifications of Virginia legislators.
The data shows that Republican legislators are more likely than Democrats to have not attended college. That gives the Dems ammunition to portray the GOP as a gang of barely literate fools. On the other hand, the data also buttresses the Republican portrayal of the Dems as out-of-touch elitists.
As our friend Don the Ripper might conclude, “Maybe they’re both right.”
— JAB
