The End of the Republican Party?

Many pundits since elecrion day have pointed out that the Republicans foolishly hitched their wagon to a single demographic group: older white (and of course straight) males--preferably not with a lot of education in subject such as Sociology or Ethnic Studies.  As this group has been and, for the foreseeable future, shall remain a shrinking part of the electorate, it seems in hindsight unwise to have "fired up the base" by alienating Latinos and women.  Republicans since Richard Nixon have made a living by trying to paint the Democratic Party as the refuge of poor blacks and clueless intellectuals, thereby scooping up the white South and working class.  But they can ill afford to hand the Democrats large pluralities of the nation's young, women, and Latinos.

The problem facing Republicans, though, is that the party has become dominated by people who feel alienated by the same modern forces that are reworking the electorate.  Sensible Republicans who want to remain competitive in national elections and in states such Nevada and Florida recognize that they must now move significantly to the left on questions such as immigration and women's rights--and eventually on gay and lesbian rights.  But it is precisely these changes (a black man in the White House, women outnumbering men in a growing number of professions, Spanish speakers arriving in more and more local neighborhoods and schools, and gays and lesbians appearing in sit-coms and PTA meetings) that have motivated so many conservatives to become politically active, to "take back our country," as they often put it.

Those of us who embrace social and cultural diversity have a hard time not gloating at the fix the Republican Party finds itself in.  We should remind ourselves that most people find change unsettling, and that in the 1960s the Republican Party also seemed to be hopelessly out of step and headed for the scrap heap of history.

The Election We Deserve

'Tis the season for complaints about the endless barrage of political ads that treat us like we are a bunch of rubes easily influenced by lies, exagerrations, bombast, and personal attacks.

     Of course the problem is that these ads are so common because they usually work.

     Our inability or unwillingness to pay much attention to civics, to our obligations as citizens, means that we are influenced by relatively small amounts of information.  That is why televised debates and advertisements are so important.  Most of us don't get much information otherwise.

     Therefore candidates are often rewarded for appearing to be in command and assertive, even if they are spouting a bunch of nonsense.  They are banking on the fact that only a small sliver of viewers will read the fact-checkers' articles the next day.  Likewise, advertisements so often play to the more shallow side of human nature (fear and envy, for example), because in the absence of knowledge we tend to vote with "our gut."

     The power of this sort of advertising means that the candidate able to buy up the most advertising has a huge advantage.  This advantage would be greatly reduced--and the level of political discourse greatly elevated--if all of us spent half as much time educating ourselves about politics as we do watching sit-coms.

The Future of Higher Education?

     I've recently read a number of articles about inequality and, for lack of a better term, modernization--by which I mean globalization and the advance of technology.

     Part of this is due to simple self interest, as more and more academics are wondering if we'll eventually be replaced by a combination of online lecturers from the professorial elite and teaching assistants located in places like India.  Will students soon have the option to listen to the lectures of Stanford professors while getting detailed feedback from teaching assistantsliving in India?  The part of me that wants to keep teaching--and earning money--into my seventies hopes not.  But it is certainly conceivable that such courses would be both better and much cheaper than many if not most of the courses now offered at colleges and universities. 

     Economists seem to be divided on whether or not technological efficiency leads to a net job gain or loss.  But some are suggesting that most of the job losses of the Great Recession will not be recovered, that the combination of technological change and moving jobs offshore means that a smaller and smaller proportion of us will be able to make a decent living--even as our economy creates cell phones and, perhaps, college courses, that are both cheaper and better.


   

Books: A Precious Gift

One little incident that occurred during my recent trip to Ghana underscored for me how differently people there and in the U.S. view books.  I had finished skimming a scholarly journal that I had brought along, so I put it in the trash, as I had no further use of it and didn't want it to take up space in my luggage.  The person who cleaned my hotel room removed it from the trash and placed it back on the desk, no doubt assuming that I must have put it in the trash by mistake.  Not even an American would be so crazy as to throw a book away.

I enjoyed telling Ghanaian students that I knew students back in the U.S. who hoped to never have to read an entire book.  This they found very hard to believe.  They were incredulous that such opportunities are squandered.  Students in Ghana often share textbooks, or copy their contents from the blackboard.  They yearn for books that they can take home to study and for "story books" that they can read.  This is why the staff at Purity School decided that having a library was their highest priority.  And it is why when African students get to the western world, where we are awash in books that so many of our students don't want to read, that the students from Africa so often excel.

It doesn't cost those of us in the West very much to provide Ghanaian students with books of their own.  And that act might prompt us to take more seriously the opportunities for reading and learning that we so often spurn.

Question for Students at KNUST and PSU

When did you start learning about the history of slavery in school, and how do you think it has affected the development of West Africa and North America? As you post, be sure to remember that this is a sensitive subject for many people, so it's important to be respectful toward those with different opinions than your own.  Please contact me at delmard@pdx.edu if you have any concerns or problems.

Support for Awisa Schools

My last day in Ghana was a very full one, as my friend Dr. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa and his driver picked me up in Kumaski at 4:00 a.m. and drove to Accra, where Dr. Amankwa had some appointments with education bureacrats.  We then drove to his home village of Awisa, where he introduced me to the staff and teachers of three fine schools that I hope to find partners for back home before they then drove me back to the airport in Accra.  They then headed northward, into the warm night, for another five hour drive before they reached home about twenty-one hours after starting their day.

I first ran across Dr. Amankwa's work while researching Ghanaian education, as he has written excellent articles on such topics as the impact of textbook shortages and a lack of instruction in indigenous, local language on Ghana's students.  He recently became a dean at KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).  Like many Ghanaian academics, in Ghana and abroad, Dr. Amankwa is interested in the practical application of his research.  So he spends much of his time not just teaching, researching, and admistering at the University, but also working to improve the quality of education in Ghana's schools, work that sometimes demands a 21-hour day.

In Awisa, once again I was deeply impressed by the dedication of Ghana's teachers and students.  I'm inspired by the example of academics such as Dr. Amankwa, and I know that the teachers and students back here, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States,  who get to know their counterparts in Ghana often feel the same way.  If you know a teacher who might be interested in working with these schools, please let me know.  We need each other.

Integrating African and American Worlds

Just about everyone who has gone to Africa from the United States comes home feeling disoriented.  My cousin was so put off by the supermarkets and glut of consumer goods that he found in America after two years in Northern Ghana that it took him about a month to get home.  My wife, Wendy, had a similar reaction after more than a year in Kenya.

My own trips to Africa have been much shorter, and I've stayed in very nice hotels, eaten expensive food, and traveled in relative comfort.  Even the schools that I have visited have been, on the whole, better than average.  But I, too, find myself struggling to reconcile the comforts of home with the reality of life for the teachers and students I met in Ghana.  Part of the difference is material.  I spend about as much on clean drinking water while in Ghana as the average Ghanaian spends on everything.  The difference in average income is somewhere between twenty-five and fifty fold, depending on how you calculate it.  Ghanaian students treasure books at school and home, a place to study, light to read by.  American students take these advantages for granted--and commonly squander them.  Observing Ghanaian students and teachers at all levels prompts me to realize how carelessly I have led my life.

These realizations prompt me to feel uncomfortable.  I don't like to acknowledge how privileged I am, how little I've accomplished with those privileges, or how skipping a dinner out or a magazine subscription can allow a student from a poor family to go to a fine school for a year or put several books at the disposal of hard-working students.  But it's a very necessary and, I hope, productive discomfort.  Imagine how different both Africa and the United States would look if those of us leading privileged lives shared our bounty with our less privileged brothers and sisters--and were inspired by their commitment to learning.