> Perhaps I'm a bit naive, but I disagree. We challenge free market
> ideology every day in public community colleges and universities.
> --And more and more people are attending these institutions!
I think you have a point in a certain sense. The US left (including liberals/progressives, whatever) is constantly missing an enormous rhetorical opportunity to advance a critique of markets. Public colleges and Medicare and Soc Sec and lots of other things are non-market institutions. Although the public doesn't think of them this way, they are popular *because* they are non-market institutions. But they are never depicted that way in political discourse. (Partly because of the Ideology Problem.)
The left in political discourse ought to use every opportunity to explain in *provocative* terms how and why these hugely popular institutions are opposed to the logic of markets. They should put the onus on the Right to either attack the concept of public colleges or come up with some (non-existent) explanation for why they are not non-market institutions. This is related to Michael Pollak's idea of calling single-payer a socialist idea. It should be done.
SA