"Aren't there any grants or anything?!"

[Chovexani]

As some of you know, I work in financial aid for an automotive school. I have students literally from one end of the country to another, from Maine to Arizona and all points in-between. I would say most of my students fall in that vaunted NASCAR demographic; many of them live in solid red states. We're basically the Harvard of automotive schools. It's an expensive proposition to be sure, but our students are able to actually pay their loans back when they graduate. Most of them end up using a combo of federal and private aid, because federal aid simply will not cover the full cost of attendance (tuition + rent & living expenses).

I hear the question in my subject line at least twice a day, usually when I'm running down the award to parents and students. And I always answer it the same way: "unfortunately, federal grants have been severely cut over the last few years, education just hasn't been a priority in a few years".

To be sure, some of those folks are Democrats, but it's a good bet that many of them are Republican, just judging by the states I deal with most often. Some of these folks have voted Republican because they didn't want gays getting married, they were terrified that the Men in Black Helicopters were coming to get their guns, and that Democrats are killing their babies right after we kicked God out of schools. They loudly complain about taxes and welfare queens and cheer on in shock and awe when we bomb the hell out of brown people for their oil. Then they get indignant because "Big Government" has no money for them to get an education. The man whose bumper sticker graces the back of their pickup truck gave it all to Blackwater, and is playing three-card Monty shell games with the remainder.

And because I'm a Democrat--because I'm a human being with a sense of decency--I will do everything in my power to make sure they can pay for their education. I will bust my ass to make sure they get to school so they can get out of the poverty they're in and feed their families. I will move heaven and earth for them.

And they'll keep on voting themselves in deeper, turning the fire up on the wok and wondering why they keep getting stir-fried.

It's depressing.

[Buzz Clik]

1. A dear and brilliant friend of mine summed it up quite wonderfully:

"I really don't understand why most Republicans vote Republican. I understand the rich ones because a GOP-controlled government will do everything in its power to allow them to keep their money and make them more. But I don't understand the struggling blue collar Republicans. Why would they vote against their best interests? It makes no sense."

[Chovexani]

2. Kick.

[candymarl]

3. Ah, another "bleeding heart liberal"

I'm one too and proud of it! Bless you and thank you for helping.

[idovoodoo]

4. I really wonder if any Republicans (or many Democrats) even know where "bleeding heart"

came from in the first place. ;-)