I would say that distant learing is definitely more of a democratic learning. This is because distant learning gives the option of education to a lot more people than education was available to in the past. Democrats want everyone to be as educated as possible, they are not threatened by society as a whole getting smarter. Republicans want to keep a sense of being in control, so they probably want to limit education as much as possible. By keeping education centralized, and eliminating distant education, they would ensure that a lot less people were getting educated and it would help them stay in control. Democrats want everyone to have the oppurtunity to get an education, whether it be throught distant learning or traditional education.