Affirmative Action for Conservatives

And I thought all this time conservatives were all for personal responsibility and no quotas.

At his blog, Professor Stanley Fish skewers the reasoning behind the creation of a Chair for Conservative Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado ... the same university that appointed a Republican fund-raiser as its president.

The reason for the chair. Well, it's because the university is left-leaning and this will help balance things out. Whine, sniff. Gee, sounds kind of like the rationale given for affirmative action, the one rejected by conservatives. You know, there are too many whites getting into our schools scot-free and not enough minorities, so let's redress the problem and give more opportunity to those less fortunate.

Fish writes this about the left-leaning rationale:

Wrong on all counts. First, what does “left-leaning” mean? Does the university issue policy statements on controversial matters? Does its administration come out for gay marriage or for gun control or for reproductive rights? Does the university endorse liberal candidates, or criticize Supreme Court decisions, or contribute to Move On.org? If the answer to any of these questions were “yes,” “left-leaning” would be an accurate designation. It would also be a reason to deny the university its tax exempt status and demand that it register as a lobbyist. But of course the university does none of these things. How then does it lean left?

The answer appears a little further down in the story when it is reported that emeritus professor Ed Rozek surveyed the Boulder faculty and found that out of 825, only 23 were registered Republicans.

Gee, every university must have its nutty professor McAdams. Anyway, it is affirmative action. Read more here, if you like. The victim class has struck again.