What’s going on at WVU and elsewhere isn’t an absolute contraction of higher ed. Across the sector enrollments are lower but still historically high. Rather it’s the creation of a lower-tier higher ed product for poor students, students of color, and students from rural areas These divides have long existed and have been reflected in funding inequities and prestige hierarchies as long as higher education has existed as a mass product. What’s new I think is that some states are now basically abandoning the idea of a public flagship

I think this is key to understanding last night’s results in Philly. Parker aggressively pursued party decisionmakers from the very lowest to the very highest levels, courting their support deliberately and systematically. These structures still exercise enormous influence.

https://twitter.com/dennismhogan/status/1657088562674688029

I’m hesitant to wade in too much with postmortems because I know so many good people who worked their hearts out and are super bummed. And it’s reasonable to feel that way. A Parker administration is going to be business as usual at a time when business as usual isn’t enough.

The shock of the Pelosi attack is that, again, Republicans are allowed to write off the most extreme elements of their coalition while Democrats become defined by Republican caricatures This is because there needs to be two political parties, locked in eternal contestation, for most political media to make sense. These parties have to be broadly similar.