James and I were sitting in another Political Science discussion today, led by our TF Alex Whalen (aka TF Jazzy Jeff), talking about Bush's shortcomings in all of his political decisions, which is standard procedure in this particular class. Either there are no conservatives in our class or they're too embarrassed to say anything in defense of Bush, which is completely understandable right now.
The most frustrating part of this class is that there are some kids who stand out as people who think they are on a much higher intellectual level than the rest of us. One girl in particular represents this to James and I every week in class as someone who could be categorized as the "typical" BU student; not that there could be such a generalization at a school with 30,000 students. The best term I can come up with to describe this group of people would be "liberal elitists." She has liberal views for the most part but, because she is a college student at a fairly prestigious private university, thinks of herself as God's gift to the political theory. In a discussion last week about poverty and wealth she chimed in that "it [was] our responsibility [as college scholars] to make up for all the 'stupid' people of our generation." Another great moment came earlier today as we were talking about interest groups and if they truly represent the views of their members. Specifically we were discussing AARP and whether its members were interested in having their opinions conveyed to politicians or its members were using AARP in an apolitical way, mostly for discounts at commercial establishments around the country. This time she expressed her view by saying that people who don't have intellectual political ideas are also stupid and shouldn't participate in interest groups. It's interesting how many people at BU I come across who share in this ideology; a general liberal philosophy and an overriding belief that are superior to a majority or Americans, but with no real desire to help those beneath them in economic class. There are a lot of students here who need to be more open minded about people not spending $40,000 a year to develop superficial ideas as to how to improve the world.