The Death of the University
by David Samuel McCalmont
I despise colleges and universities today; they've become – for the most part – incubators for festering hostile ideologies in total opposition to the 249-year-old American Republican Project that has nurtured a unique cultural environment whose by-products have been freedom, liberty, and prosperity.
At least the "student athlete" program of colleges and universities of all sizes has given the wider public not just some joy and entertainment during the changing seasons, but also a sense of unity away from the tensions, conflicts, and stress of everyday life.
Now that's gone.
The era of the "student athlete" is over.
My days of following Division One NCAA football are over.
We don't need another professional football league.
The entire concept of college and university has been overcome with outright corruption. Very little of an institution's total budget goes for actual education these days. Teaching and the transference of knowledge and wisdom to the next generation is a drain on the budget because it is a total cost outlay.
Everything else a university today spends money on is an "investment" to which it looks for a payback. Whether it's land purchases, housing construction, serving meals, operating retail stores, chasing research grants and projects, or stoking an athletic program for fun and profit.
What reasons remain that tether us to these institutions of higher learning that spend so little of their billions of dollars on actual teaching that leads to learning and critical thinking?
What's happening with our "educational dollar" is nothing short of a major national scandal!
“Palestinians” Versus Israelis
Once again, keeping in lockstep with left-wing ideology trumps any obeisance to reality on the ground. Anybody advocating radical gender theories, or even traditional homosexual values, would be incarcerated or murdered in Hamas-controlled "Palestine."
The irony, of course, is that just about any unorthodox sexual-gender practices are tolerated in Israel, whether the majority of Jewish or Arab citizens there agree or not with those opinions or practices.
Adding further salt and spice to the mix is that a sizable minority of those slaughtered on 10/7 at the desert music festival were young people from both inside and outside Israel. The participants in the desert stood apart from the typical cultural and political norms of most Israeli citizens and would appeal to their fellow countrymen and overseas admirers to at least listen to the pleadings of the LGBTQ+ brigade.
In a media world no longer dominated by the erstwhile monopolists of the mainstream media conglomerate, average internet surfer can see for themselves the idiocy and lunacy of the marginalists in society who believe that radically intolerant Islamists would allow – even for a second – the promotion of any social theories that would disrupt and undermine the narrow cohesion of Islamic Sharia law.
The Upcoming Mid-Terms
A party edge in the U.S. Senate is usually determined by the number of incumbents up for reelection who must be defended. In 2026, Republicans have far more senatorial seats to defend than Democrats.
But most of the Republican seats are slam-dunks for reelection barring any political earthquakes between now and November 2026.
The real potentially competitive races are in Democrat seats coming before a disgruntled electorate in their states.
Adding to that, so far, is the announcement from three Democrat incumbents up for reelection that they are retiring: 78-year-old Jeanne Shaheen (NH), 67-year-old Tina Smith (MN), and most recently, 80-year-old Dick Durbin (IL).
Odds are better than 50-50 that Democrats will retain all three seats even in what would now be "open" elections. If that holds, the result, of course, would be the Republican Party maintaining its 53-47 edge in the politics of which party ends up with control of the U.S. Senate in the critical 2027-2008 presidential campaign season.
The best chance for a "flip" would be in New Hampshire. Were that to occur, the Republicans' chances of defending their Senate leadership is made that much easier.
The reason parties don't like "open" elections is that incumbents bring at least five percentage points to the table before the campaign even begins. Giving up those five points – even in a friendly state – means injecting more money into the campaign than was initially planned.
Cash is always a limited resource. More money to defend Democrat seats in Illinois, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, means less money to inject into staving off, for example, an upset in Georgia, or pecking away at a vulnerable Republican incumbent somewhere.
But there are almost no delectable pieces of Republican fruit hanging too close to the ground in 2026. Texas and North Carolina always tease Democrats with their possibilities, but this century they have come up short in Senate races every time. Republicans entice Democrats to throw a bunch of money down rat holes in TX and NC; defending their Democrat seat in GA may also – in this cycle – prove to be an exercise in wasteful spending for the Democratic National Committee.
"Retirement announcements", especially in the Democrat camp when they are not in power, are usually a smoke signal that party fortunes look dismal down the road. Primaries are a year away. Lots of time for other Democrats to say they “need more time to spend with their families.”
Concentration then falls on the House of Representatives, where every seat is up for grabs every two years. If Republicans lose that, well, to borrow a phrase from President Donald Trump, “All hell would break loose.”
Stay tuned.
I can understand why you don't like universities today, but I still prefer living in a college town to one that doesn't have a university. Of course it's a mixed blessing. There's always something interesting going on at UCSB I can attend, but the influence it's had on Santa Barbara politics has generally been bad. But still, without UCSB Santa Barbara would just be full of real estate agents and people in finance.
As for Israel and Palestine: yes, a lot of Leftists supporting Palestine are guilty of what you mention, for example their love of transgenderism would not go over there. But many people who are critical of Israel in this conflict - including myself - are not advocating Palestinian values or expressing anti-Semitism - but are appalled by Israel's attack.
The universities today have created the problem America has with the Regressive’s on the left. Kids are taught what to think. Not how to think. This is not teaching. This is indoctrination. The adults thus formed lack the most important mental skill of all. Critical thinking. And so we end up with herds of people who require a judge to tell them what is and is not a woman etc. This is what America so soundly rejected in November. And rightly so.