I was just wondering if any other people have heard of Michael Parenti, he is a liberal author. Our text book for American Politics class is his book and only his book. This shows how liberal the professor is.

When I was in college I had a ton of liberal professors. One in particular..political sciece used to hate me. I would pick apart his weak liberal dribble every day. Just ask the hard questions...the libs NEVER have an answer...not to say the libs don't have great ideas..they just don't base them on any sort of realism or what I call the "human condition".

Darcaine

I have read quite a few of one of my son's books in Pol.Sci. Most of them seem to be liberal. We have some great discussions.
Hope to check this one out.

According to your posts, I gather that a lot of professors are liberal. Over on the media thread, the posters are of the opinion that a lot of news programs are liberal.

What do you think is the reason for this?

MT

Idealism.

Darcaine

Power.

My guess would be idealism and looking for the new and different. It is a very interesting subject and one that would require a lot of research and time.

I thought of that, but why doesn't teaching and the news media attract conservatives as a career? Maybe it does, but if it does, why the liberal slant, if there actually is a liberal slant?

MT

Many of them are simply that idealistic academics. There are a lot of people suited to teaching who are simply not suited to the business world. I am not knocking teachers. God knows we need them and more and better. But they are all products of what goes before, and they do tend to be idealistic. The press is taught by these people. The press uses its power to influence, and there are a lot of very rich liberals who have great influence. If one doesn’t think so they are kidding themselves.

Idealism is liberal. It swings left. That is why Lenin made such an impression and where his ideas came from. They believe the Federal Government should take care of everyone. Hence the redistribution of the wealth. But this takes away the drive of the individual, hence the fall of Communist Russia.
The argument of populism, states rights & central government can be traced in our country to Jefferson and Adams. Conservatives believe in strong states rights. It is a basic difference of philosophy. I am not a writer, and probably could have put this better, but that is what I believe. I think back to high school and what college I had and realize there was so much liberal thinking.
I also believe the two have come closer in their thinking over the years and moved more toward center. More than I would like actually.
Socialized medicine is not working in countries that have it...another example of liberalism

I would be very interested in your views on what you believe is the case.

Are not we all products of what has gone before us? What your explanation says to me is that those interested in learning and teaching are liberals and those interested in business and making money are conservatives. Nothing wrong with either.

I don't know of any liberals who believe that government should take care of every one. I think that's an exaggeration. Liberals do believe that, sometimes a person or, a group of people need a helping hand from government.

The word liberal, as you know, means a willingness to try new ideas. I read somewhere, I think it was on another forum, (nothing official) that Thomas Jefferson was a liberal and his liberal thinking brought us the Declaration of Independence.

I can't really give you my view on why the media is liberal leaning, because I don't think it is. I think there is a fairly good balance.

I also believe that there are just as many, if not more, very rich conservatives as there are very rich liberals who have great influence.

While I don’t think all socialism is bad, I agree that socialized medicine does not have a good track record.

Some liberal ideas have not worked and some conservative ideas have not worked. The trickle down theory certainly doesn’t work. Since Reagan, there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The middle class is being swept away.

MT

Actually MT trickle down does and did work. You only had to look at the 90's to see that effect. You see you have to look at a longer time frame to see things happening. In fact, trickle down is the ONLY way our economy works. The DNC has spun that word with so much poison that some people have no idea what they are talking about. In reality capatalism only works in a "trickle-down" effect.

Darcaine

Nope Darcaine, don't agree with you, will have more to say later.

MT

So has anyone hear heard of Parenti? That was my origain question. If you have not then can you try and find a book by him and let me know if its easy to find his books. My Prof told our class that Parenti is a well known Poli Sci writer, I have never heard of him before though.

http://www.michaelparenti.org/

Brian, try this. MT

I have been to his site before, but I have never found any of his books in any store.

Brian-There are 27 of his books listed at barnes and noble online. You probably already know this. They can get them to you in a few days, might even get a used book.

MT

I already have one of his, Democracy for a few, its nothing but anti-American ramblings. I have heard enough of his *** NOTICE: THIS WORD IS AGAINST THE RULES. FAILURE TO REMOVE IT WILL RESULT IN A STRIKE. ***, I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever read any of his books.

I don't blame you. The one I read to balance "Bias" and a couple of other conservative books on the subject was just that. Of course there was a lot of that going around in all of them.
Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media

Meant to ask. What was the general reation to the book?

You mean by my class? Most of them like it, they think its the truth and the only way to look at issues. They don't realize how biased it is toward liberal views. A few of the people in my class don't like it, but the majority does.

Well, you will have to introduce some from the other side!