That is better than 90% of what gets published in The Onion.
I'm not ignoring the blight of inner-city education. But you have to remember that you made that point immediately after blustering about you can't take anything from a pin***** country with no ethnic diversity. I was asking: are inner cities blighted because of "diversity," or are they "diverse" because they are blighted? Is ethnic diversity the culprit or, say, economic diversity? Bivariate correlations showing poor black performance are of limited use, due to the myriad other factors that shape outcomes. If black 4th graders in MA score higher on math assessments than white 4th graders in WV. (google national center for education statistics), that suggests that ethnicity may be second fiddle to other influences. Likewise, it's hard to blame inner city blight on multiculturalism when white kids in California and Texas perform better than white kids in Wyoming and South Dakota.
J. tapdancing C, I was never trying to debate. I had set aside my preconceived notions and was trying to use this board, which is fequented by intelligent folks from across the spectrum, to have a conversation that might help me solve the question (obvious in my very first post) of figuring out which policies might travel, which wouldn't, and with respect to the latter, how to design a policy that might capture the benefits of those "non-US" policies in a way that is more consistent with American values.
TL/DR version: I was trying to learn.
I was pizzed b/c I was trying to start an actual conversation, and you wandered by and sharted all over the place. I now know that you considered that to be "debating." There are lots of corners on the internet (e.g. dailycaller) where you can do that. Don't foul up uscho with that. Unless it's funny. Funny always gets a pass.
Lastly, you're right about one thing, even if you're wrong overall. I don't hate the Democratic Party. It is what it is. I do hate what the Republican party has become (forget about deficits; just let God into the economy and all will be well). The GOP could provide a much, much needed corrective across a range of domestic policies. But that'll never happen until it reorders its priorities in a major way. It's time for the majority of Republicans to stop being silent about the teavangelical hijacking. Count my scorn as one (admittedly small) step in that direction.