Dangers of academia’s ‘indoctrination mills’

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum caused a bit of a stir last month when he labeled college campuses “indoctrination mills” that enforce a strict adherence to “politically correct left doctrine.” For conservatives, Mr. Santorum might as well have called the sky blue. But from the way the media and liberal pundits pounced on his remarks, you’d think he had said something profoundly indecent.

For decades, conservatives have documented and criticized how liberal ideology runs rampant throughout higher education. Hence William F. Buckley’s famous quip from the 1960s: “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” Fifty years later, few conservatives would disagree.

But could the problem be getting worse? The Pew Research Center released a study in December showing that more Americans age 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism over capitalism. In fact, this demographic has a net positive view of socialism (49 percent positive to 43 percent negative) and net negative view of capitalism (46 percent positive and 47 percent negative). When Pew released an earlier version of the same study two years ago, this demographic’s views on socialism were exactly the opposite (43 percent positive and 49 percent negative).

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