In a new post at See Thru Edu, Robert Paquette points out that too many conservatives are keeping silent about needed reforms in higher ed.

Will Public Discontent Bolster Higher-Education Reform?

A recent poll conducted by Fox News asked registered voters for their opinion about the future of the country. When asked, “Do you feel hopeful or not so hopeful about the direction of the country today?” more than sixty percent of the respondents said “Not so hopeful.” In a follow-up question, when given the choice to describe their feelings “about the way things are going in the world these days,” almost sixty percent of the registered voters chose “[t]hings are going to hell in a handbasket” over “[e]verything will be all right.”

At about the same time, The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol published a brief essay on the teaching of conservative ideas to undergraduates. Current events have created opportunities, he believes, to cross the moats and scale the walls of Fortress Campus. Conservative thinkers predicted long ago the likely results of the transformative ideology that the Obama administration clearly hungered to apply to the land. Conservative ideas do indeed offer robust explanations as to why, at present, the country is in a malaise so discomforting that even Jimmy Carter has become queasy about it; conservative ideas do indeed offer remedies for how to return the Great Experiment in Republican Government to strength, pride, and prosperity. Kristol has no illusions about the difficulties of the proposed campaign. “The colleges and universities aren’t interested. The media and popular culture are hostile.” His hope rests on the objective reality of a failing presidency. “The decomposition of the Obama presidency,” Kristol believes, “has created what Obama might call a teachable moment.”

Count me, however, among the “not so hopeful” about the ‘teachable moment.” Mr. Kristol failed to identify all the culprits for the current malaise. Corporate America has, to a great extent, sold Middle America down the river. Far too many of its executives have either hopped on the postmodern, progressive bandwagon or have kept their dissent to themselves, having been intimidated into silence.