I disagree with the faculty for two reasons. First, I think that many students in the not so near future will want to study the eight years under this president, because it has been such a bizarre few years. That is, the growth of the Executive has been astounding and the policy has been so one minded and unflinching that President Bush will be an interesting study for years to come. Second, the dismal failures of this government to provide any semblance of the basic needs of the American people will be apparent to students for generations. The only way to study this sort of politics and policy will be to preserve some of the insaneo-conservative thought, and a think tank might provide just the vessel for it.
In my undergraduate experience, my two favorite professors were also my two most conservative ones. That is not to say that I did not have some great liberal professors or meant in any way to support an unnecessary Horrowitzian Conservative Quota to "balance" education. Simply put, a well defined and considered ideology in opposition to my own, taught me a great deal about my own philosophy. The academy is a perfect place to point out all of the failings of the Bush Presidency and contrast the Bush Ideology with ideas about a real society full of citizens that come to each others aid when needed, can commit a small amount of their own money to great public works, and believe in constitutional rights and boundaries.
