Comments on: The Week That Was

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:28:07 +0000

For Paul: Folks in Newark, NJ seemed quite thrilled to me. And Iselin, NJ. And up in Harlem. And the workers at the gym I go to, and the people at the cafeteria and security desk. Don’t know if we’re getting close to Sarah Palin’s “real America” yet, but we’re trying!

By: Robert Ahdieh

Robert Ahdieh — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:18:10 +0000

Paul:

As an attempt at capture a representative sample of the population, you’re absolutely right. I think what struck me more than the wide range of folks moved by the election, however, was the relatively exuberant/engaged response of those who were.

Thus, students, people overseas, academics, and maybe even New York cabbies may well have been pleased when Bill Clinton was on the ballot and elected in 1992. What I’m less sure of is whether they woke up early to vote, called friends in the States to thank them, canvassed and wore smiley faces at work, or gave free rides to their passengers. If not, then each case becomes (at least for me) somewhat striking.

-Bobby

P.S. And on the question of liberal bias in academia, if by that we mean a greater representation of liberals in academia than in the general population, are there actually folks who dispute that, as a descriptive claim? Surely the report of my day can’t possibly constitute significant new proof of that point…

By: Paul Horwitz

Paul Horwitz — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:23:02 +0000

Robert, can I make a slightly less snarky point? I’m not sure there’s really much evidence about the range of people moved by the election — although, as it turns out, I think a wide range of people *were* moved by the election. The problem is not your conclusion, but your sample. Questions of liberal bias aside, I think the range represented by students and prominent faculty members at Columbia and Princeon runs the gamut from A to B, as Dorothy Parker once wrote. A young cab driver in New York doesn’t add much to the sample. Now, if you’d been in Paducah, that would be a different story.

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:58:02 +0000

And many say that there is no liberal bias in academia.

Thanks for proving a point.

By: ok

ok — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:20:39 +0000

the cab driver was driving you to princeton after you spent the day at columbia from a home of a columbia colleague.

By: Robert Ahdieh

Robert Ahdieh — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:51:47 +0000

P.S. I also thought the image of Walzer wearing a smiley face sticker was worth a bit of shameless name-dropping…

By: Robert Ahdieh

Robert Ahdieh — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:31:51 +0000

Sorry you thought so.

I had the same concern, but given what I wanted to convey, about the range of people who were moved by the election, the alternatives seemed worse. Would it have been preferable to reference “prominent scholars at top schools” or something of that sort?

And presumably you weren’t all that impressed by the cab driver, in any case, though he got more attention than anyone else…

By: ok

ok — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:06:21 +0000

And quite a shameless and embarrassing namedropping self-promoting post