Stomach-Turning Self-Enoblement

Even though my cynicism should be more than sufficient to insulate me from any measurable degree of amazement at the moral supremacism of the various and sundry factions of the extreme Left, I still end up shaking my head at rhetorical overkill like the following:

Years before making The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a young Austrian bodybuilder hitting the books at Santa Monica College, hungry to become a success.

But the celebrity governor's plan to return to his alma mater next week to deliver a commencement address is turning into something less than a homecoming celebration.

A faculty group declared that Schwarzenegger "threatened academic freedom." The Board of Trustees was asked to rescind the invitation. And protests that could attract hundreds of people from on and off campus are being organized around the governor's scheduled appearance on June 14.

The rational mind reacts to this charge with a perfectly reasonable "WTF?!?" And then, considering its source, it concludes that the ever-reformist governator must have had the temerity to do something to anger the omnipotent teachers unions.

The rational mind would be right.

Schwarzenegger, elected in 2003 after promising to rid Sacramento of partisanship and insider influence, has seen his popularity slide as he pushes proposals to cap state spending, redraw legislative district boundaries and make it harder for teachers to gain tenure. [my emphasis]

He has been feuding for months with groups he calls "special interests" — teachers, nurses and other public employee unions who accuse him of selling out to big business while shortchanging education, health care and other programs. Those groups have hounded Schwarzenegger at his public appearances, sometimes attracting crowds in the thousands.

Ah-nuld is correct, of course. There is arguably no interest more "special" than the public employee unions, which have become the backbone of what's left of Big Labor as the private sector has steadily de-unionized over the past generation - which, not coincidentally, has coincided with an unparalleled stretch of sustained economic growth. And the National Education Association is their crown jewel, a stubborn, arrogant, selfish obstacle to genuine education reform, a brain-dead protector of its own bureaucratic power and privilege at the expense of inexcusable incompetence, mediocrity, and deliberately depraved social engineering.

And from that arrogance their one-way rhetorical streets eminate, the definition of "special interests" only applying to "big business" and other Marxist cliched stereotypes, while they are the last line of defense against those who would "threaten academic freedom."

This mindset is garishly displayed in a resolutely dishonest resolution promulgated by Santa Monica College faculty condemning Schwartzenegger's education policies:

Schwarzenegger "has diminished access to higher education by approving increases in student fees," the resolution said. He "has threatened academic freedom by supporting a voter initiative ... that would alter the manner by which California faculty receive tenure." [my emphasis]

Get that? Giving the voters a say in education reform is a threat to "academic freedom." Kind of like ending the confirmation filibuster in the U.S. Senate would "destroy the Republic."

If Ah-nuld was still naive enough to believe that his reforms, which cannot help but be squarely aimed at the heart of the ruling left-wing establishment in Sacramento, were ever compatible with "ending partisanship," tantrums like this one should wisen him up in a hurry.

The SMC Board of Trustees, to its credit, issued a statement defending the choice of the Republican governor to address the 600 graduates, and the governator is going to give his speech as scheduled.

Meanwhile, student body president Jeronimo Saldana (I swear I'm not making that up) is lamenting that his graduation is preventing him from joining the protesters:

"If I was just a regular student, I'd probably be out on the sidewalk with everybody else," he said. "It's a really difficult time for students and this governor isn't making it any easier."

You mean "everybody else" will be allowed to protest?

Guess that makes graduation itself the threat to Jeronimo's "academic freedom." An irony that can only be appreciated - by a rational mind.

UPDATE: Welcome aboard, Cao's Blog readers! Drinks in Ten-Forward are on the house, where there's served no synthehol and all the beverages are green....