...is that despite far higher birth rates in Red zones, going to college at places like Northwestern University or, I'd suppose, the University of Washington, will turn Red State progeny into lifelong lefties. Here's what Savage, a lecturer in English at NU, has to say in the current issue of (Seattle's) Stranger.

The children of red states will seek a higher education, and that education will very often happen in blue states or blue islands in red states. For the foreseeable future, loyal dittoheads will continue to drop off their children at the dorms. After a teary-eyed hug, Mom and Dad will drive their SUV off toward the nearest gas station, leaving their beloved progeny behind. And then they are all mine.

...I don't indoctrinate my students. My job, as an English professor, is to teach my students to read deeply, to think for themselves, and then to write their own arguments effectively....They get exposed to the world around them...

And so whatever the demographic models suggest, I'm not worried about the red staters outbreeding blue staters. As long as their kids need a college education, they'll come to a blue town, county, or city, and there they will learn a thing or two about the world in which they live - and vote.

Yes, Lecturer Savage, they will. And after the vagaries and exploration of their college years and young adulthood pass, they will begin to notice what they are paying in income taxes, sales taxes, business taxes, special use taxes, and motor vehicle license excise taxes, and begin to wonder what they are getting in return. Perhaps they will even have personal encounters with government bureaucracy or officialdom that will leave them less than enthused. I've heard that happens sometimes.

They may get married, and even have children. They may even start a business, or become property owners. Paying property taxes is always a wake-up call.

Especially if they become parents, they may seek to find a community in which to live, a community where not only are property taxes sensibly spent and government administered competently and efficiently, but also where random crimes against persons and property are not commonplace, and where the public schools, specifically, are not either an abomination or a monument to mediocrity.

And so, as you say, "they will learn a thing or two about the world in which they live and vote." In other words, they will vote Republican; and fairly often. Sooner, or later.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 13, 2005 12:36 PM

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