Santorum: Obama "A Snob" for Wanting Everyone to Go to College

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   PrettyPantherposted 12 years ago

   http://youtu.be/NkjbJOSwq3A
   
   "President Obama once said he wants everyone in America to go to college. What a snob. There are good decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren't taught by some liberal college professor, and try to indoctrinate them. Oh I understand why he wants to you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image. I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his."
   
   The worst part of this video is the people in the audience cheering.  What is wrong with them?  Oh, how awful it would be if people were to get an education so that they could become a teacher or pediatrician or engineer.
   
   You know, like Rick Santorum, who has an undergraduate degree, MBA, and law degree.
   
   Okay, sarcasm aside, why would people cheer a highly educated politician for wanting other people to remain "unindoctrinated" or, in reality, uneducated?  Isn't Santorum being a "snob" for believing that other people can't get a college degree and still maintain their ability to think independently?

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      EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This Santorum guy obviously knows what kind of thing will appeal to his audience. Sadly, he wouldn't have got the cheers if he'd said something along the lines of "A college education is great for some people but it isn't realistic for everyone. This country needs craftsmen and vocationally-trained people as well, and in any case it's a massive waste of resources to send every 18 year old to college when a lot of them will probably drop out or will have to work in McDonald's after they graduate."
      
      Rhetoric gets votes. Realism doesn't.

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         gmwilliamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         This is so true.  Many college graduates are now performing jobs that high school graduates are doing.   In essence, they do not have a marketable major.  They majored in the easier liberal arts subjects, not the marketable majors such as medicine, engineering, mathematics, and other technical majors which would require extensive intellectual exertion and intense study.   Again, only those students serious about attending college and who are in the top quarter percentile of their high school should attend college.  College is not for EVERYONE- c'mon now!  It is time to stop inundating children that they have the RIGHT to a college education because they exist.   College is for the INTELLECTUAL FEW who will make GOOD USE out of their degrees.

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            lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I totally disagree!
            
            Anyone who wants to should be able to go. If it's not for them, they will find out real soon.
            
            But to cut them off before-hand due to their economic situation ...that is snobbery if you ask me!

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               EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I can't see where anyone is advocating that people should actually be prevented from applying to college? I'd be surprised if even the most dyed-in-the wool Republican was proposing that.

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                  lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  No--they may just not want any more financial aid available...due to the austerity we all must be under, except for, and due to, the very rich.
                  
                  Pell Grants were establisheb by a Republican from Rhode Island, Clairborne Pell!!...why can't they tout that, and enlarge it, and use it as pro-Repub campaign?

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                     EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     The fact is that you can:
                     
                     (a) Give financial grants to relatively few people (the poor ones with very good grades), or
                     (b) Encourage everyone to go to college, but give them loans rather than grants.
                     
                     You can't encourage everyone (or even 50%) to go to college AND give them all grants. It's too expensive. And why should the taxpayer fund someone to do a three year degree in leisure and tourism, when they could have gone and worked in a travel agent straight out of school and done a part time evening course at their local further education institute?

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                        lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Same reason the tax payers give subsidies to oil and gas companies,give tax breaks to married couples, and use tax dollars to pay for reasearch and development, which companies then use to create products we all use.
                        
                        We all pay taxes....education is for the benefit of us all...IF the person has that desire!

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                           EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           I would argue that a lot of taxation should be scrapped. I don't see why we need even more taxation, which would surely be necessary if the government were to pay for every 18 year old to go to college/uni. There comes a point where the tax burden is so high, that it actually acts as a brake on the economy because people no longer have enough disposable income to spend on goods/services.

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                              lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Well--I have no problem cutting tax moneys going to fund things.
                              The problem lies in what they cut it from, and where they spend it.
                              
                              That is the whole crux of the problem, now isn't it?

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                                 EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 Why should the government spend taxpayers' money on sending everyone and his dog to university?

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                                    lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    Who said everyone and his dog?
                                    
                                    Only those who wish to go, and are accepted!

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                                       EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                       If you think that this is going to happen courtesy of the taxpayer, then dream on.
                                       
                                       I would imagine that like the politicians in my country, Obama wants everyone to go to college, but he wants it them to take out loans in order to do so. Millions of people labouring throughout their 20s and 30s under crippling debt... I can't see that this is a good thing in any way.

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                                          lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                          http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/ … _blog.html
                                          
                                          "She emphasized that the program will not cost taxpayers anything because the administration plans to use savings from the elimination of loan subsidies to pay for the reduction on interest rates on loans that are consolidated."
                                          
                                          I find it sad that they have to defend spending on students--making SURE that tax-payers aren't affected.
                                          
                                          But if Bibi wants something, he gets it, no questions asked.

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                                             EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                             That sentence should be amended to "...will not cost taxpayers any more..." And if more ex-students end up being "forgiven" for their debts after 20 years, then it will indeed cost taxpayers more.
                                             
                                             As to your point about Israel, yes I couldn't agree more. The West has no business funding it and no business funding pointless wars in the Middle East.

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                     gmwilliamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Of course, I believe in tuition assistance for economically disadvantaged students.  Almost everyone who possesses a modicum of logic does.  The point I am making is that only smart students(A and B students) should attend college and/or university because they are more intellectually capable of mastering the academic rigors of college than a C student who is woefully intellectually incapable of mastering a college curriculum.  In fact, the average college curriculum is way over the head of the C student.

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                        EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Sssh, you can't say that - it's just not PC!! <Snort>

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                        lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        That's what they do in Europe and Russia.
                        
                        You can go to University, but must prove you're worthy.
                        
                        Nice that Americans agree with Godless commies!

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                           EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           Why on earth shouldn't universities have entrance criteria?

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                              lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              They do!
                              
                              And you only get to go with gvt funds if you qualify.
                              
                              I do believe we do that here too??
                              
                              Of course, you can believe that guy on tv with the weird suit, who says that there is so much college money available anyone can qualify.
                              
                              of course, you have to buy his book to find out how.

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                     American Viewposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Of course, it is the top 1% fault, LMC has spoken. Forget the tens of millions they give every year to scholarships, for setting up scholarship programs, the tens of millions donated every year to collages directly which are used for scholarships, for the wings on colleges they donate money to so they can be built, or the millions donated so certain programs can even be offered in colleges, for being boosters of colleges.
                     
                     I think an interesting study of the self made millionaires for the last 50 years would be interesting to see how many were college  grads and how many were not.

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                        lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Well--you know the bennies they get from donating all those millions?
                        
                        What is the name of it when your kid gets to go to a school because you fund it?? Or because your father and grandfather went there?
                        
                        It's affirmative action for the rich...what is it called?
                        
                        Legacy.

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                           American Viewposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           So I want to get this straight, you blame it all on the rich, you want them to pay, then when I show you they pay, you do want them to pay, you criticize them.

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         Evan G Rogersposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'd vote for what you just said.
         
         Not sarcasm.

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            EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes Evan - I believe you.
            
            But most people aren't like you. They are swayed by appeals to their emotional "hot buttons", not by rational arguments. And this applies to people on both "sides" (left and right). It's almost as though they have been programmed.

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   gmwilliamsposted 12 years ago

   Santorum is again being presumptuous for calling President Obama a snob for suggesting the premise that he wants everyone to attend college.  Now, that being said, it is an impossibility for everyone to attend college. There are students, no matter how hard they study, who are DEFINITELY NOT college material such as C students. College should be only for those who are in the top quarter percentile of their high school class such as A and B students. Anyone who is not in the top quarter percentile of his/her high school class would be totally wasting his/her time in college.  C students are better off, obtaining some type of vocational and/or apprenticeship training after high school.

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      EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, and I can't help wondering why governments seem to be so keen to encourage students of average ability to take out loans and get into massive debt on a three year degree course, when (as you say) they would have been better off financially, and happier, if they'd trained as a plumber or whatever.
      
      Here in Britain there has been a similar campaign in recent years, to get 50% of all 18 year olds to go to university, as opposed to the much smaller percentage who went in my day (the 1980s). This was allegedly aimed at "widening participation". The thing is that in the 1980s and earlier, the student population was so small that the government could afford to give generous grants to those students who *did* go to university. So as a child of a single parent, I not only had all my tuition fees taken care of, but I got a £2,000 per annum living allowance which just about covered my rent and living expenses (although I did take a summer job to top up my finances and cover unexpected bills). I will always be grateful for this, and for the grammar school education that led up to it.
      
      From the 1990s onwards, the student population increased dramatically. To help pay for the increase in university "infrastructure", out went the living allowance (to be replaced by loans), and tuition fees were introduced for all but the poorest students. Since then, tuition fees have risen in line with the rising student population. Now they're among the highest in the world.
      
      The irony of this is that many aspiring students from poorer backgrounds must surely be put off by the sheer cost of going to university. Now the new universities "access tsar" in Britain is proposing to make universities introduce a form of "affirmative action" for applicants from less well-off backgrounds*. Ugh.
      
      *http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106232/Les-Ebdon-University-Bedfordshire-offers-breastfeeding-carnival-arts-courses.html

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      Michael Willisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The flaw with your statement about Only the top percentile and A & B students from HS going to college...is a classmate of mine from High School.
      He barely received a "C" average. Barely got into college from a low ACT score, which he took  more than once.
      He finally got into college and was on the 'Dean's List" every year!!!!!

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         lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Right!
         
         Investing in human potential! Nowadays the only thing we can invest in are tax cuts for already wealthy.

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         Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I agree, i was a C student in high school, i graduated with honors from college. Many people flourish in college when they have more freedom. Not everyone who does badly in high school is intellectually inferior...
         
         After college I was accepted into the U of Toronto based on my grades and ability.
         
         So you can't make blanket statements like that which sound snobbish to the max...

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            EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes fair point, but there's a huge difference between acknowledging that some people (like yourself) are late bloomers, and saying that *everyone* should go to college.
            
            Did Obama actually say that anyway?

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               PrettyPantherposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Finally.  Someone questions the accuracy of Santorum's statement.
               
               Took long enough.

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                  lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I did! I did!
                  
                  "Yeah..I missed the part where Obama said "Every child shall be forced to go to college"....."
                  
                  Posted 2 hours ago reply

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                     PrettyPantherposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, you did! 

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   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   I went to college, and wasn't indoctrinated. And I found out that school work was really that....work.
   Believe me, people who don't belong soon find out.
   But for those who want to go...who have that fire in the pit of their belly, why should they be excluded because they are not from a monied background?
   
   I think Santorum is the snob for insinuating that giving everybody an opportunity is bad.
   I guess he would prefer only those whose parents can afford it should go.
   Typical Repub world view.
   
   Dahling, if the masses can't afford it, they can shine my shoes for a pittance.

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   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   "Rick Santorum doesn't want kids to go to college so they can stand outside Planned Parenthood all day terrorizing women"

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      Repairguy47posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Nope, you certainly weren't indoctrinated.

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   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   Yeah..I missed the part where Obama said "Every child shall be forced to go to college".....

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   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   errrrrr, they don't teach Operation Rescue tactics in college. That you learn in Rogue Church.
   
   And I have seen the results of it first hand....Ugly mean and demonic-- yes, all 3.

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   secularist10posted 12 years ago

   Rick Santorum is an idiot.
   
   But that aside, Obama and many college-educated people (I used to think this way too) assume that college should be the ultimate goal of everyone. In reality, a higher rate of college education does not automatically translate into greater GDP per capita. But it would definitely create a semi-educated underclass of debt slaves.
   
   About a third of students don't complete high school. If people are concerned about education, that is the real problem, and that is what results in countless societal problems, and that is what Obama and everyone else should be focusing on. Instead of wasting time on this college debate.

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      lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well, but then Santorum wouldn't have the opportunity to call Obama a snob. That was the whole point wasn't it?
      
      Let's get it right: the R's are the party of personal destruction, par excellance.
      
      If someone arrived here from a foreign land, and watched the news, they might wonder why America has a president who is a muslim terrorist and hates America.
      
      Issues don't matter.....it's the personal smear that is the goal.
      
      The party of no and smears...and lies.  THIS is what politics had drudged into.
      
      and yes Drudged was deliberate.

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         secularist10posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Just more examples of how far the Republican party, which used to be a viable political party with some good ideas, has fallen.
         
         Now in a quagmire of hollow rhetoric and obsolete ideas, led by empty suits (Romney), morally bankrupt kleptocrats (Gingrich), self-righteous celebrity types (Palin) and premodern simpletons (Santorum).

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            lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, and the people in the audience and in their crowds who cheer them!
            
            I'm done. From now on, I speak my truth. These people are enemies to the kind of America I want for my kids and grandkids.

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   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   Sad to say, but this is how I feel too:
   
   "I'm so sick of these right-wing fascists and their insane beliefs. I love freedom of speech, but when does it go too far? What is the political equivalent of shouting "fire" in crowded theater? At what point does someones speech become so detrimental to society that it becomes acceptable to strip them of their right to speak freely, if for no other reason than to stop them from poisoning people's minds with their lies and paranoid delusions? Telling people that higher education is "bad" and universities are nothing but indoctrination mills is one of the most despicable things I can think of. I would be embarrassed to say something like that. I'm sorry, but I think whenever you are actively trying to damage society, you really should not have the right to speak freely. You have proven yourself unworthy of expressing yourself on a public platform. There really need to be some sort of law or laws that can put a stop to this negative, hate-mongering, detrimental bilge that these people are pumping out and poisoning peoples minds with. It is harmful to this nation, and should be treated as such.
   
   I just simply do not want to share a nation with these "people" anymore."

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      innersmiffposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Why would you want to shut him up? He is demonstrably stupid because he is allowed freedom of speech. I'd rather know that he has these opinions than not.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         +1

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         lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         He is not spouting them as his opinion, he is spouting them as God-Given truths.
         
         Who the H is he?

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      EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh Gawd.
      
      Just be thankful you still have free speech in your country, rather than agitating to take away other people's.

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         lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         They are agitating to take away MY rights as an individual....and my daughters.
         
         They are all phonies to the Constitution.
         
         Oh---and Bush was quite stringent in arresting people whose speech was counter to his. Just ask that Attorney General, who covered up the breasts on the Greek statue...what's his name.
         
         They are anti 1st,4th and 8th amendments in my opinion.
         
         Only one they care about is the 2nd.  And THAT supports a deadly weapon! And they scream about abortion!
         
         Where in the 1st amendment is lying to the people a right?

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            EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I don't know who this guy was, but assuming he did what you say he did, how come two wrongs make a right?
            
            How come it's not OK for him to curtail someone's free speech, but it is OK for you to do so?

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               lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I can't possibly curtail anyone's rights. He was the attorney general....and all this blah about Obama curtailing rights is just that...blah. When you had an admn that was actually DOING it, and not one of them who are complaining now said Boo.

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      mio cidposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      all four republican candidates are on the record saying they are against education to pander to the 20 million Rush Limbaugh followers, so if they are against education they are for ignorance, is that what will  make this country greater?an ignorant population?

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         innersmiffposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Ron Paul is against The Department of Education. Which is a pro-education stance in my book.

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         Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yet I am assuming they all went to college?

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            lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes. A couple even went to Harvard, if I'm not mistaken...you know: that snobby elite school for pointy-heads.
            
            Gads Thurston...the riff raff that they're letting in!

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               Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Where President Obama also went

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            mio cidposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            yes they went to college that's how they got to where they are , but the  more ignorant people there are the larger their pool of voters.

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   rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

     What an incredibly stupid remark. I can't imagine people cheering such a ridiculous statement.  Firstly, that Obama wants to remake students in his image.
   Secondly, it's not 'peoples' responsibility to remake their children into their image!  What a scary reality that people think like this. You want a President who wants to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image?? Wow.
   That's lunatic fringe stuff.

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    knolyourselfposted 12 years ago

    Obama wouldn't know a human right if it was a left-over from dinner.

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       lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       He's not going to force me to have a child against my will. Maybe that's nothing to you...to me, it's everything.

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    knolyourselfposted 12 years ago

    "He's not going to force me to have a child against my will." I wouldn't be too sure. There is money in it for the health-care corporations. Wait til after he gets reelected.

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