Evil Republicans 101
The Friday Letter / Issue #171
Opposing viewpoints aren’t seen as necessary
in a political science course at NC State
Duke Cheston / Pope Center for Higher Education
Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve been asked to design an introductory college course on American government and politics. In addition to explaining how American government works, you would probably include some assigned readings from the Federalist papers, Anti-Federalist papers, and letters and speeches from around the time of the writing of the Constitution. You would want students to understand why the Constitution was set up the way it was, why “ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” and so forth. It might also be useful to look at some modern views on the Constitution from various political perspectives.
Alas, one instructor at NC State who teaches an introductory political science class
Cheston
has seen fit to follow a different course, imbuing his students with his own ideology rather than an objective presentation of the facts. John Strange, a graduate student who teaches PS 201: Introduction to American Government and Politics, has assigned readings for his class that argue two main themes: 1) conservatives are stupid, and 2) the Constitution sucks. (more…)