My comment on the Op-Ed (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/opinion/impeachment-trump-nixon.html#commentsContainer ) is below.
The authors left off the most important difference. Here is Thomas Jefferson on that difference.
“…Preach…a crusade against ignorance…improve the law for educating the common people…the people alone can protect us against…evil…kings, priests and nobles…will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance…”
On my blog, inside-higher-ed, I illustrate and explain how the corruption of higher education has led to dumbing down K-12 education, and, thus, the ignorance that Jefferson warned us of – an ignorance that has led to some people being led by emotions, not reason. Returning to education, Profs. Arum and Roksa, have shown in their book, “Academically Adrift”, that college students (some of which become K-12 teachers) are now required to study 45% less than in the 60′s [70’s voters], and 35% less than in 1980; and that the gain in critical skills is next to nothing. That gain used to be one standard deviation.
This has come about because of what David Riesman saw in 1980 (that “…the “wants” of students to which competing institutions, departments, and individual faculty members cater are quite different from the “needs” of students…”), has come to full bloom in our age. (Riesman’s book is “On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism”)
Jefferson warned us. I hope it’s not too late.
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