“total approval for Health Care has fallen from 57% in April 2009 to 45% in July 2010.”

Oh my God! Christian Science is taking over!

“Disapproval of Congress is so widespread, a recent Gallup poll suggests, that by a margin of almost two to one, Americans would rather vote for a candidate with no experience than for an incumbent. Throw the bums out is the mood.”

And yet how many bums will these same Americans be returning to Congress?

I urge everyone to read the Russell K. Nieli link. I already knew of some of Espenshade’s work and had grown inured to the racial discrimination in university admissions as summarized in your quote, but there are some other shockers in the article.

The Neil Reynolds article reminds me of a recurrent Mark Steyn quote:

When seeking to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, President Ford liked to say: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” Which is true enough. But there’s an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want [that] isn’t big enough to get you to give any of it back.

The operational conclusion seems clear.