Still the party of Trump

There is a bill making its way through the legislature that would be very bad for Iowa’s universities.Why would the Iowa legislature want to harm Iowa’s universities?

It is self evident why Republicans would want voters to lack education and critical thinking skills. Not to say that being smart and having a formal education are the same thing. There are plenty of people who do not have a college degree who are very smart and well informed and they do not support right-wing crazy. But it sure does make it easier to influence opinion with simplistic talking points, lies and propaganda.  Here’s recent polling published by Newsweek:

About half of Republicans and Americans without college degrees said they want Trump to remain the head of the party for the foreseeable future. And 89 percent of U.S. adults with no college degree said they want the former president to remain at the forefront of politics.

One of Trump’s former spokespersons who is probably in jail now said once, remarkably, “Donald Trump is the president for the uneducated.”  That’s about the size of it and why democracy needs an educated citizenry, even if bad for Republicans.

“If this bill were to pass (SF 41), many of our best and brightest would leave. It would make Iowa an educational backwater that no one would want to be associated with in higher education,” Keith Saunders, Iowa Board of Regents.

Bill text: legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=SF41