In the piece excerpted below, Media Matters for America takes on the Republican spin machine with regard to the alleged liberal bias among professors.

In the article, there is a quote from Bush’s political guru Karl Rove, where he is asked how to identify a Democrat, and he says “Someone with a doctorate.”

I can well recall many times hearing Rush Limbaugh demonize the educated by referring to “pointy headed academics”.

Whenever I heard Limbaugh demonize the educated, I recalled history lessons. Historically, authoritarian politicians appeal to the uneducated masses by demonizing the “elite”.

Educated people, like journalists and professors, and even lawyers, are accustomed to viewing things skeptically. We read, we criticize, we DO NOT accept the preaching of our politicians at face value. We have become accustomed and comfortable with thinking critically.

The educated will SPEAK OUT AGAINST the authoritarians, until it becomes dangerous to do so.

And so, the authoritarian movement must DISCREDIT the voices of the educated.

If you want to mobilize the uneducated populace toward authoritarianism, one way is to demonize the educated.

Do a little studying, and you will see that the great authoritarian regimes on the last hundred years demonized the educated in almost exactly the same way as the Republicans do today.

And while you are thinking about these things, you might ask yourself why it is that the higher the level of education, the more likely you are to be left-leaning.

Part of education is to respectfully and responsibly address differing viewpoints. In order to justify your thesis, you have to show that you understand the opposing viewpoint in good detail, and then show why your viewpoint is better. You have to prove your case, not just scream that you are right.

And so the educational system teaches the value of marshalling facts to support your viewpoint, and teaches respect for opposing viewpoints, and gets you accustomed to a more reasoned form of debate.

Authoritarian regimes cannot withstand the scrutiny of reasoned debate and study, and cannot justify their authoritarianism using true facts and reasoned argument - they must propagandize, demonize, and lie. That’s why they must trash the educated, who stand in the way of the propaganda movement. Propaganda — That’s been going on blatantly for quite a while, as I’ve been blogging about.

Our own authoritarian movement her in the USA has a religious flavor to it, and I’ll keep blogging about the growth of Theocracy.

Wash. Times news, opinion pieces peddled flawed … [Media Matters for America]: “Moreover, available data suggest that highly educated Americans may be more left-leaning than the general population. Exit polls from the November 2004 presidential election indicate that 55 percent of voters who have postgraduate study experience voted for Democrat John Kerry, compared to 44 percent for Republican George W. Bush. (Interestingly, when New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Lemann asked Bush adviser Karl Rove how to identify ‘who’s a Democrat’ as opposed to a Republican for a 2003 profile, Rove answered: ‘Somebody with a doctorate.’)”