# Stupid Republican idea of the day
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 251
### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5001 "2012-04-03T16:43:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Santorum’s not from California…
Are we entirely sure he’s from Earth?
I, for one, would like to thank **Equipoise** for her original post, and congratulate her on 5000 responses. Who knew Republican’s would produce such an astonishing number of stupid ideas?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5002 "2012-04-03T16:48:14Z")
> [@gaffa](#):
>
> Who knew Republican’s would produce such an astonishing number of stupid ideas?
Pretty much all of us?
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5003 "2012-04-03T16:51:00Z")
More or less everyone who isn’t a Republican?
ETA: Ninja’d.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5004 "2012-04-03T18:35:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> More or less everyone who isn’t a Republican?
>
> ETA: Ninja’d.
Most Republicans know it too. Especially the ones smart enough to get elected. Being hypocrites doesn’t preclude them from being smart.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5005 "2012-04-03T19:59:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> I know what _she_ was talking about. As I said, I watched the show. I’m saying it wasn’t entirely clear what _Santorum_ was talking about, hence “he”: it could have been either the UC or CSU system. Santorum’s not from California; he may very well not know that California maintains a two-tier university system. I didn’t until somebody explained it in the GD thread about tuition inflation a few months back.
But even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he was unaware of the UC/CSU tiered system, there’s still no way he could have made an accurate statement, because all the CSU campuses offer American history in a variety of forms.
I teach US history at a CSU campus, and our department has multiple offerings in American history, from broad surveys through to specialist topics like the history of religion in America, history of sport in America, borderlands history, American women’s history, the history of California, and a bunch of others. This is the case, as far as i’m aware, at every CSU campus, with some offering more choice than others in terms of subject matter diversity.
Not only do the CSU campuses _offer_ American history, but almost all of them actually have an American Institutions requirement, whereby even students in STEM and other non-humanities majors _have_ to take at least one or two courses dealing with the history and development of American government or society.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5006 "2012-04-03T20:16:33Z")
Maybe he meant any of the University of Canada campuses.
The CA abbreviation threw him.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5007 "2012-04-03T20:18:42Z")
It really doesn’t matter which part of which system he was talking about. He was wrong on all counts for any or all of them.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5008 "2012-04-03T20:27:12Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> It really doesn’t matter which part of which system he was talking about. He was wrong on all counts for any or all of them.
Right.
The information itself was incorrect, which means that his comments were a result of:
1. being misinformed by his aides and advisers,
2. his own misunderstanding of something that he read or was told, or
3. a deliberate decision to disseminate false information.
With Santorum, number 3 seems more likely than not.
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### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5009 "2012-04-03T20:51:35Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> > [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
> >
> > It really doesn’t matter which part of which system he was talking about. He was wrong on all counts for any or all of them.
>
> Right.
>
> The information itself was incorrect, which means that his comments were a result of:
>
> 1. being misinformed by his aides and advisers,
> 2. his own misunderstanding of something that he read or was told, or
> 3. a deliberate decision to disseminate false information.
>
> With Santorum, number 3 seems more likely than not.
How about “All of the above?”
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5010 "2012-04-03T20:52:18Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> from broad surveys through to specialist topics like the history of religion in America, history of sport in America, borderlands history, American women’s history, the history of California, and a bunch of others.
By Santorum rules, none of those count, unless they teach about when Jesus built the Statue of Liberty.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5011 "2012-04-03T21:02:24Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> Maybe he meant any of the University of Canada campuses.
>
> The CA abbreviation threw him.
I know you’re joking, but the really funny part is that you can take many American History courses in pretty much any university in Canada.
Here’s a typical listing from a typical medium sized history dept in a Canadian university:
Intro History of the United States
Revolutionary America and the Early Republic
Antebellum America and the Civil War
The United States in the 20th Century: 1890-1945
The United States in the 20th Century: 1945-Present
The American West
US Foreign Relations, 1750-1914
US Foreign Relations, 1914 to the Present
The American Experience in Vietnam
Seminar in American History
Canadian-American Relations
Northwest America to 1849
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5012 "2012-04-03T21:06:27Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> I teach US history at a CSU campus, and our department has multiple offerings in American history, from broad surveys through to specialist topics like the history of religion in America, history of sport in America, borderlands history, American women’s history, the history of California, and a bunch of others. This is the case, as far as i’m aware, at every CSU campus, with some offering more choice than others in terms of subject matter diversity.
I bet you’re one of them librul college professors brainwashing our kids, teaching not American History but Socialist Communist American history, like slavery was bad, slaves weren’t happy, American Indians didn’t really want to be massacred, and that the Founding Fathers weren’t devout Christian Fundamentalists. In other words, you don’t teach it the Texas way.
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### Author:  [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5013 "2012-04-03T21:17:36Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> In other words, you don’t teach it the Texas way.
Alabama. Pennsylvania is Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle.
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### Author:  [@Celidin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celidin)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5014 "2012-04-03T21:28:29Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#):
>
> Alabama. Pennsylvania is Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle.
That’s funny… Alabama also exists in South(west) Jersey…
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5015 "2012-04-03T21:31:14Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> Maybe he meant any of the University of Canada campuses.
>
> The CA abbreviation threw him.
[He asked friends in Ontario.](http://www.ci.ontario.ca.us/)
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5016 "2012-04-03T21:43:53Z")
I visited Berwick, Pennsylvania once. I’ve never been to the Southern states, but from their depiction in television and cinema, it seemed similar.
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### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5017 "2012-04-03T22:48:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> I bet you’re one of them librul college professors brainwashing our kids.
You bet! **mhendo** practices classic brainwashing techniques: imprisonment, isolation, sensory deprivation or overstimulation, drugs, and a constant stream of propaganda. 'Cuz, you know, they’re only in college. It’s not like they can get up and leave or anything.
😃
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### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5018 "2012-04-03T22:51:34Z")
Not to mention, all of us proffies sit around in the faculty lounges and we’re Satan’s tools.
The Mitt and the Rickster tell you so.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5019 "2012-04-03T22:55:25Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> But even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he was unaware of the UC/CSU tiered system, there’s still no way he could have made an accurate statement, because all the CSU campuses offer American history in a variety of forms.
Well, yeah. That’s exactly what I was saying in the post under discussion!
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/5020 "2012-04-03T23:06:31Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#):
>
> Alabama. Pennsylvania is Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle.
Central PA is still Appalachia. So is upstate NY, northern New England, and the Atlantic provinces. All of them are chock full o’ rednecks, if not so many blacks as further south. It’s a mountain thing.
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