Heather Mac Donald argues that while conservative frustration with the academy is warranted, the Right shouldn’t sink so far into populism as to reject the importance of education altogether:

I am as depressed as anyone by the university’s descent into ignorant narcissism and victimology over the last 30 years. And yet I fear that the enthusiasm for Sarah Palin’s anti-elite status risks spilling over into a rejection of intellectual life and serious study tout court. I know that the Palin enthusiasts do not intend to knock rigorous liberal education per se, only its current deformity. But in all the fulminations against Harvard, wouldn’t it be possible to signal that it’s not just paying the mortgage, pumping the gas, and enjoying her husband and children that qualifies a working mom for the vice presidency, as one commentator has suggested, but that the study of history and political thought might help, too? Such study can be accomplished at the University of Idaho no less than at Princeton.