Rick Santorum Doesn't Believe In the Exceptionalism of America's Youth, I guess.

Former PA Senator Rick Santorum criticized President Obama over, um, thinking America's children should go to college, while speaking at St. Anselm College.  Because that's the kind of guy he is, I guess.

What he said:

I was so outraged by the president of the United States for standing up and saying every child in America should go to college. Well who are you? Who are you to say that every child in America should [go to college]? I mean, the hubris of this president to think that he knows what's best.

I have seven kids. Maybe they will all go to college. But if one of my kids wants to go and be an auto-mechanic, good for him. That's a good paying job: using your hands, using your mind. This is the kind of snobbery that we see from those who think they know how to run our lives. Rise up America, defend your own freedoms. And overthrow these folks who think they know how to orchestrate every aspect of your lives

Which is kind of weird, because, I think what President Obama has been saying isn't that anyone has to go to college, as if it was some kind of re-education center or something, but that our kids should be ready to go to college and able to afford it if that is their choice.  But what Santorum twists this into is, "Look at that snob, Obama--who does he think he is? (Is he saying he's better than you?)" Or at least, that what I'm hearing.



It's not hubris to expect the America's children be well-educated and well-prepared to face the challenges of the job market when they leave school; a good education provides more opportunities--an increased freedom, if you will, not an obligation. By indicating Obama is being a snob against people who work with their hands, though, he's really trying to create an impression that access to education is about Obama's values, and that somehow his values aren't our working/middle class values.

That's hogwash.  Working people have long seen the value in providing their children with a good education--it's been a part of the American dream to see one's kids do a little better than oneself. Also, he's assuming that education isn't a good in and of itself, besides being preparation for one's career.  So what have we got here?  Class warfare?  Anti-intellectualism? And maybe a soupcon of "you don't have to be a dog to hear it?"

Oh, Santorum. You suck with force of a thousand black holes.