Do republicans actually want people to remain uneducated? When I was in

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South Carolina about 10 years ago, someone told me, "75% of the people in South Carolina can't read or write." Although this may be an exaggeration, it got me to wondering if right-wingers and republicans prefer the general population to be illiterate and uneducated. Is this part of their plan?

[shoelace414]

1. the more educated the person

the more likely they will vote for a democrat

[Demeter]

2. Absolutely!

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king (if he isn't stoned to death first for being obnoxious). Can't manipulate educated people like the ignorant!

[Sanity Claws]

3. Yes, cheap labor

The corporatists who call themselves Republicans definitely want cheap labor.

[B Calm]

11. Lot of truth to that. The more desperate people are, the cheaper

they can get people to work.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Yes. In fact, one of their big shots said that the problem with Democrats

is that they're overeducated. Or something to that effect.

[earth mom]

27. I've heard rethugs put down "intellectuals" too...

it's a dirty word to them just like the word "liberal". :eyes:

[kestrel91316]

30. This is why I have become rather suspicious of some

posters here on DU who show a decided anti-intellectual bent. I suspect some of them are RW infiltrators, and they can't help but make comments that show their true nature.

[FreedomAngel82]

33. Remember the whole ordeal

with the "elitest democrat" and being smarter than everyone else? :eyes:

[cwydro]

5. I think absolutely they

would prefer that. Who else would believe their tripe?

Here, where I live and work..it horrifies me that the most ignorant are the Bush suppporters. I have seen this again and again.

[Metta]

6. Lack of education leads to linerar, not-critical thinking and

a more knee-jerk acceptance of authority.

[baldguy]

7. They don't want people to be educated.

They want them to be "educated".

[mazzarro]

8. So It Seems To Me

The fact is that critical thinking is something the repugs frown upon. The less quality education the masses get, the more easier it is control. I will bet that top hierarchy of the repuglican party will prefer more pliable populace.

[PatrioticLeftie]

9. Of course

How would the masses willingly give up their own rights for less pay when they are educated?

[seejanerun]

10. Read Noam Chomsky on this subject

They need people who bow to authority, follow directions, don't ask insightful questions, and have never been taught critical thinking skills. Why else would they make it so expensive for schools that fail to teach to the test?

[rniel]

37. Well when you want to bring the country back to the Dark Ages

Peasants were not educated and it was a great way to keep them down. Education is power and they sure didn't want anyone being educated except the rich lords.

[tsuki]

12. Yes, the biggest screw up of the old USSR was when they

force education on their masses.

That is why I think after Fidel, the dictatorship will fall. It is held together now by a cult of personality.

As for the US, we have moved from the most literate nation on earth (the 1860's) to almost 3rd world status. And an ignorant population is very receptive to simplistic talking points reiterated by "working class" figures such as Falafel Bill or Vannity.

[LostInAnomie]

13. My girlfriend says the same thing.

She was a teacher in Indiana (which is not especially know for its support of education) and then moved to South Carolina after accepting a teaching job. When the school year started she was absolutely amazed at the difference between the students. The students in SC seemed to be almost two years behind in comparison to those in IN.

She says that the students are by no means less intelligent but the social support for education from the families and community just isn't there.

[stepnw1f]

14. It's a Terrible Gamble the GOP (Neo-Con) Invested In

Lack of education will weaken our country regardless of any short-term political gains. It was a stupid gamble for sure, because the less educated will inevitably slow down progress, and weaken the country as a global competitor across the board. This bunch of course, is not concerned with log-term anything but war profiteering itself.

Their model of "Free Market" has been tested, and it has already failed. Just look at the cracks it has shown already. You can not base a government on a corporate model's profit margin. IT DOES NOT WORK!

Even a layman such as I, can see this.

[Jon8503]

15. Yes, yes and yes. I remember some time ago on a discussion

on public broadcasting, an indiviual, and wish I could remember but I have never forgot what he said.

On education, the republican party, very rich, desire very much to destroy the public educational system.

They would love religious schools, private schools where their children could get ahead.

The more they can keep the poor down and uneducated the more they can control the election process and wages.

May not be true but it seems to fit the way we are going.

[Ioo]

16. Yes they do...

Because anyone with a breain would not vote Republican

[moobu2]

17. Yes... the ignorant are easier to manipulate and control

[lolly]

18. Think of the ante-bellum South

There was a reason why slaves were forbidden to learn how to read.

The "War on Science" and the "War on Secular Humanism" (i.e., logical, reasoned thought over superstition) are Republican/Wingnut tactics to keep people from putting 2 and 2 together. I suspect the substandard education in much of the South is a huge part of the reason they keep voting Republican. Critical thinking is required to unravel the simplistic slogans and us-v-them thinking of the wingnuts.

Everybody keeps asking why poor white folks keep voting against their own interests. In a nutshell, it's because they aren't well educated enough to see what the right-wing politicians are doing to them.

[FreedomAngel82]

34. And also don't forget

while they aren't focusing on what the republicans are doing to them they pound the religion very hard to drive people to them. Why else do you think the republican party caters so much to the "religious right"?
They don't care at all about the issues such as gay marriage or abortion either way. All they care about is making money.

[leesa]

19. Absolutely! It is essential to controlling a population. How else could

you get away with the nonsensical lies they have told if you had an educated, aware population?

[Ally McLesbian]

20. Yes, yes, and yes

Lack of education means more slave labor for the haves, and more ways for the haves to stay in their position without much of an effort. Education means class mobility, something the Republican haves do NOT want. Also the religious institutions rely on the ignorance of the general population to rule through fear - which was the case in pre-Renaissance Europe, and is again the case in today's America. And when someone complains, they just say the "free market" is working its way, and you're doomed to wherever you are.

I just came off of a frequent flier board, where some neocon praised the pathetic flight attendant wages as the market forces being at work, and blamed unions for not making it easier to fire old, ugly FAs in favor of young, sexier, CHEAPER FAs that "do more good for the airline." Is this what it's all come down to? Just a dollar sign on each person's head?

If I ever end up with this guy in an airplane, I WILL throw him overboard. I may not be an FA, but I am writing a novel about one, and I've gained tremendous respect for that overworked, underpaid profession. At least they should be paid enough to be able to dream of bigger things in life.

And speaking of the Almighty Dollar sign on everyone's head... now that I look at our currency and its "In God We Trust" motto, I am starting to puke. God and Money are one and the same, it seems, a cruel entity hellbent on destroying humanity. I expect this kind of stuff to happen only in fundamentalist countries like Saudi Arabia. Keep this up, and I will have to demand being paid only in "real," more stable currency like the Euro or the Canadian dollar.

[Chan790]

21. Statistics

I don't have the numbers in front of me but I used to work for a Literacy NPO and if I recall correctly it's actually 68% in SC and 41% nationally as of 2000.

The stats can be found at www.NIFL.gov (It may be .org) and yes, GOPpers like their constituents dumber than dirt.

[Chan790]

25. sorry

I checked:
SC - 44% literacy, 25% in lowest score level
National - 49% literacy with 23% in the lowest literacy-score level.

In general Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Western states score highest, Western coastal states in the middle followed by Southwestern and the South. Montana and the Dakotas are the most-literate states.

[Lex]

22. Democracy only works with an educated citizenry . . .

and that's why a good public education system was so important to our democracy flourishing and why it was established.

[Ally McLesbian]

23. Of course, the Republicans

call public schools the last bastion of socialism.

The dying gasps of hypercapitalism. You gotta love it. The commies were just as desperate in their dying days of the late 1980s. Hypercapitalism works just as well as pure communism (in other words, it won't work)... The best system is somewhere in between, grounded in practicality.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. They want them just literate enough to be good employees, not

intellectually curious enough to read and find out that they're being screwed.

[walldude]

35. Hell they don't even need people literate

have you see the cash register at McDonalds, they have pictures on them for god sake...

[Lex]

26. From Senator John A. Logan, March 1882

The child of the peasant is often as full of genius as the child of the prince, with a stronger body and less tendency to habits of vice or recklessness; and if he can be found and educated, the nation certainly derives the greatest possible benefits; and, if a nation is to be raised to its highest degree of efficiency, every particle of its mind must be utilized.

Is it not, now, easy to see that the education of the young, on one common plan, with one common purpose, - the people's children taught by the people themselves, - in schools made by the people themselves, yet in some noble sense patronized by the Nation, and supervised by the Nation, in some proper manner, will aid in making on this continent a nation such as we hope to be, and what the foreshadowings of Providence seem to indicate we ought to be, the one great and mighty Nation of the world? We have the same glorious Constitution. Let us all, from highest to lowest, from richest to poorest, from blackest to whitest, learn to read its words as they are written, and then we shall be most likely to interpret its provisions alike, and administer its enactments alike, in justice and honor.

Let us, if need be, be careful all to obtain enough knowledge to read and understand the laws which the Legislatures of the several States shall make, and the decisions, in accordance with that common law, which their courts shall render. We have received from our ancestors, and from the present generation of philosophic scientists, a body of knowledge and wisdom, the worth of which even genius can scarcely estimate. Let that be given to every child that breathes our atmosphere, in substantially the same spelling book and primer, in schools as good among the snows of Aroostook as in marts of New York, Boston, or Charleston; as free on the shores of Puget Sound as on the prairies of Illinois, and as well taught in the rice-fields of the South as on the hills of Connecticut. Then we shall be "one and inseparable, now and forever."

http://www.jal.cc.il.us/loganspeech.html

[melody]

28. Intelligent people think critically

They aren't as easily moved by emotional manipulation. AND one of the Bush family friends once wrote, "Educating the poor is pointless. Who will haul the rubbish?" Not that the Republicans haven't shown us that they are infinitely capable of hauling rubbish...

[Canadian Socialist]

29. In the last job I had, I had occasion to talk to a young woman

in California. She was originally from Edmonton (north of Calgary, where I am). Anyway, her family moved to SoCal when she was going into grade 12. In Edmonton, she was an average student. When she hit the U.S. education system, she was the valedictorian for her year (for the highest GPA). This is, of course, an anecdote and cannot be considered a statistical probability. I'm just sayin':shrug:

[Ally McLesbian]

36. That would heavily depend

on where in SoCal she moved.

The average SoCal school district is very impoverished thanks to the starving that's been going on since the late 1970s.

A few districts, primarily in rich areas, do get some good funding, and those places are superb.

I went to school in one of those "superb" districts - Arcadia, next to Pasadena. Arcadia gets its funding from the Santa Anita Racetrack revenues, so the residents get a good school system without having to pay much in property taxes. This "gain without pain" proved extremely attractive to nouveau-rich Asians, primarily from Taiwan; the hyper-competition between these Asian students drove up the caliber of education in Arcadia even higher. Sometimes the students knew more than the poorly paid teachers, in fact! I feel fortunate that I could keep up and graduate in the top 3% of my class, without having to resort to Japanese-style jukus that all my classmates attended!

[ladjf]

31. It's extremely important to the slave owners that the slaves

remain uneducated. They don't want them to be distracted in any way from working for the "man" or worse, thinking about escaping. Education leads to enlightenment and that's bad for despots.

[FreedomAngel82]

32. Well duh

If they don't know anything about what the republicans are talking about all they have to do is say a few Bible verses and they've got them hook, line and sinker. This is why they have the sound bite answers and talking points. When they pound it hard enough into people's heads instant success for them. As Bill Clinton said once last year, "when people think democrats win."