An excellent entertainment for a Sunday afternoon. Princeton history professor Stephen Kotkin responds to the following five questions:
- What does Xi Jinping believe and what does he want?
- What does Vladimir Putin believe and what does he want?
- Has technology changed the nature of warfare?
- Is the United States a “house divided” that cannot stand?
- Are there rational grounds for American patriotism?
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Interesting. He made good points about demonizing the opposition. He made great points about upping the ante a lot on early and HS education. That equality of opportunity means getting help to children when they are young, not just in their later years.
Note that he did not denigrate public education. Rather he sang its praises via a school like Stuyvesant in NY.
Pre-school and daycare for those who need it is part of the Democratic agenda.
But, the demonizing continues.
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RE: “He made great points about upping the ante a lot on early and HS education.”
Yes, he did. I didn’t take his commentary as support for the public schools system per se, but as a sort of generic example of how the equality-of-opportunity agenda achieves superior results over the equality-of-outcome agenda.
I think public schooling in America is an experiment in socialism that has failed. I also think Dr. Kotkin is correct that a political system based on liberty can work, whereas a political system based on socialism/communism cannot.
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Affordable, available healthcare and education are elements that help equalize opportunity. Most folks don’t have wealthy parents or inheritances that pave a smoother road, so pooling resources, taxes, to provide pathways and not barriers to decent financial security in a society that values that above most else.
I know very few that want equality of outcome as a goal in isolation.
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