Sally Jo Sorenson of Bluestem Prairie isn’t the most ignorant and depraved leftyblogger out there – she’s probably not “Minnesota Progressive Project” material.  She’s even got the odd bit of useful material in there, occasionally.

But it’s a leftyblog.  What do you expect?

Well, I never expect anything – and my expectations get lived up to in spades in this post, about College Republicans protesting a bottled water ban at Saint Benedict’s, a Catholic college in Saint Joseph:

The Republican Party is changing…College Republicans want students to defy a decision made by a private religious college.

Sorenson quotes a Strib piece explaining that St. Ben’s College Republicans – who knew? – are protesting the ban.  To replace the water (in the machines stocked with pop made with high-fructose corn syrup, the market for which is making food unaffordable in the third world), Saint Ben’s installed, essentially, pay water fountains for refilling reusable water bottles.

The Strib piece quotes the CRs:

“Just as the government should not ban plastic bottles in America, a school administration should not ban the sale of plastic water bottles on their campus,” said Ryan Lyk, chairman of the Minnesota College Republicans, in a statement.

This fall, St. Ben’s became the first school in the state — and the ninth in the nation — to ban the sale of plain bottled water on campus. Macalester took a similar step Sept. 1.

Students can buy bottled water off campus and bring it to class.

Yeah, I know – you’re shocked too?  If a commune in Portland decided to mandate aluminum foil pants in solidarity with Indonesian maggot ranchers, Macalester would adopt the rule.

The “Hydration Stations” cost the private school $20K to buy and install – a cost that is eventually passed on to the students (or whoever pays the tuition).  From the Strib, again:

But that expense is just one part of the problem, said Kate Paul, a St. Ben’s student and a Minnesota College Republicans leader. Her statement: “The hydration stations not only cost us money to use, they are costing us our ability to choose and convenience that derives from choice.”

Sorenson responds:

This is a stunning show of support not for the free market, but for consumer rights.

Sorenson is under the impression that there is a distinction – or that “consumer rights” is a regulatory rather than grass-roots activity. Either way, she’s, well, wrong.

St. Ben’s is a private college founded by the Benedictine orders, known for moderation and hospitality.

Their hospitality stops short of providing an inexpensive education, of course; a years’ tuition at St. Ben costs $34,000 and change, not counting the $9K room and board.

Sorenson didn’t list that in her article – but she did do some research on monastic vows:

But the fifth chapter of Rule of Benedict concerns cheerful obedience to leadership, while the students are looking simply to service their own wants.

Sorenson has apparently mistaken monks for students. Monks aren’t “customers” or “consumers” of St. Ben’s; they are “employees”, if you will.  Someone entering into an “employment agreement” – I think monastic vows count – has a different set of expectations than someone who pays, ahem, forty-three thousand dollars a year to attend the school.

In her confusion, Sorenson accuses the CRs of…confusion:

Moreover, the students seem to be a bit confused by their chosen analogy, which equates the private college’s administration with government.

Well, no.  I mean, a college is an authority, to be sure – they have more “authority” over a student’s life than, say, Taco John’s or Walmart or The Gap do.  But where is it written that people can only protest government?

And Ryan Lyk didn’t equate the school with government; he compared them.  There’s a difference.

Sorenson gets more and more confused as she goes:

Should they really wish to follow the free market arguments which appear to be so dear to their tender young hearts, the little darlings will recall the advice given to workers who wish to organize their workplaces.

That logic suggests that those who don’t like working conditions or work rules have the choice to find a new job elsewhere.

Snoogum Sorenson’s peppy but dotty little girl brain (“tender hearts”?  “Little darlings?”  Sorry – it creeps me out) can’t seem to twig the fact that she’s got it exactly backwards; employees are being paid to work; college students are paying to attend a college.

Likewise, in the free market of education, if students don’t like the rules, they can simply go elsewhere if they don’t approve of the private school’s decision about an investment that it believes will in the long run cut costs.

And in Sorenson’s world, maybe those are the only options; obey every whim of “authority”, whether from ones’ boss (who pays you), college or government (both of whom you pay for) or shut up and move along.  Perhaps Sorenson believes that college students should just shut up and know their place and switch colleges like they switch cell phone plans or internet providers when a squabble over water bottles gets ’em exercised.

Rather than, y’know, making their voices heard.

After a couple years worth of $43K investment, I think the students have every right to take a more – what’s the word libs use? – nuanced approach.  Not to mention using that pesky freedom of speech thing that libs like to natter about so much.

Or perhaps Sorenson means that Republican kids should shut up and take what’s dished out to them.

Bluestem will keep our eyes up to see if the College Republicans will begin to approach Wells Fargo or Cargill with protests about how those private entities decide to spend their money or limit consumer options.

“Bluestem” might better use their time thinking about what they really mean by “free speech”, and perhaps learning a bit about how the “free market’ actually works.

Either that, or subject herself to her own “logic”, and shut up and accept the voters’ will about, say, Steve Drazkowski.

Whereupon we’ll discover that to Sorenson, shutting up and obeying “authority” is for other people…

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.