We Don't Need No Edgy Education: Harvard Petition Fights to Keep Trump Officials Off Campus

Word on the street is, you can take a prominent political position and turn it into a speaking or teaching career.

Just ask a lot of Democrats.

But they may not have heard that word at Harvard — some at the elite school are trying to make sure such is never the case.

If you’ve worked for Donald Trump, that is.

As reported by Fox Business, a new petition circulated by students is calling on the university to “create and share with students transparent guidelines” if the school plans to allow any former Trump administration officials onto the campus.

Furthermore, as explained by Fox Senior Correspondent Charles Gasparino, the entreaty implores “classmates to sign on to an effort to hold the Trump administration ‘accountable’ by keeping them off campus.”

(1/3) SCOOP via @LJMoynihan: A group of @Harvard students is seeking to ban any Trump administration alum from attending, teaching, or speaking at Harvard, according a Harvard student with direct knowledge.

— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) November 17, 2020

(3/3) In the event the university does associate with a Trump alum, they demand the school “create and share with students transparent guidelines” as to why that Trump official is allowed on campus. No comment from Harvard.

— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) November 17, 2020

Good ol’ college — a place where young people come to be challenged by Big Ideas.

But, as I wrote recently, the biggest idea may be Very Few Ideas.

Hopefully, that will change.

But the petition doesn’t seem primed as a positive prod.

As stated by Fox, “The petition, discovered by Fox Business’ Lydia Moynihan, represented the latest attempt to punish Trump associates.”

With liberty and justice for all. Or, it appears, at least justice.

It isn’t the first time conservative speech has been given the No-Go.

Fox Business laid it out it thusly:

Last year, the university came under fire for requiring a “neutral” moderator to be present for controversial speakers. The policy reportedly allowed the moderator to impose a “two-strike” rule on interruptions and had to be registered with the Dean of Students’ Office a month in advance. An editorial for The Harvard Crimson, a student-run paper, blasted the policy and its other aspects as “paternalistic, ineffective, and contrary to the College’s stated goals of free speech.”

As noted by The Daily Wire, we’ve seen the beginnings of a “list” — it’s been touted by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it’s being hailed in corners of social media. Those who served The Donald, it seems, must bear a Scarlet Letter.

Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 6, 2020

Perhaps the letter’s even an “A” — for a word I cannot print.

Meanwhile, in cases where “A” stands for “Academia,” conservatism’s had a rough time.

And if Joe Biden wins the election — or when the next Democrat ascends to the White House — I’d say campuses are set for a more exclusionary state where the First Amendment’s concerned.

All of this, oddly, occurs as many supporting socialism continue to call Republicans Nazis.

On Twitter, attorney Daniel Ravisher put a point on the peculiarity:

“Yes let’s make a list of everyone who disagrees with Democrats. Then we’ll make them wear special armbands so everyone can tell who they are. After that we’ll put them into the same neighborhood together and blame them for all our problems. After that, camps and final solution. “Footnote: My entire Ukrainian Jewish family, including my grandfather, was killed by Hitler. So, yeah, I kinda don’t like government officials making lists of people that don’t agree with them so they, although having violated no law, can nonetheless be ‘held accountable.’”

Yes let's make a list of everyone who disagrees with Democrats. Then we'll make them wear special armbands so everyone can tell who they are. After that we'll put them into the same neighborhood together and blame them for all our problems. After that, camps and final solution. https://t.co/f3g9TSBIa9

— Daniel B Ravicher (@danravicher) November 6, 2020

Of course, not everyone’s ready to rule out a fair forum. As observed by RedState’s Brandon Morse Wednesday, comedienne Whitney Cummings gets the joke of putting the kibosh on subversive sentiments:

“I think it’s very self-righteous or sanctimonious to just dismiss people we disagree with without trying to understand why they believe what they believe.”

Will a new generation of Americans come to believe the same?

It doesn’t look likely.

Then again, who knows if we’ll even have college a year from now — if the virus persists, we all may be confined to our homes.

And who wants to go to school without the social component?

The same could be asked about the conversational one.

And where conversation is concerned, putting into practice the mother of Bad Ideas, some activists believe “mum” should be the word.

At least if you’ve supported Donald J. Trump.

-ALEX

See more pieces from me:

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Triggering: Joe Biden’s Plan Could Cost Gun Owners $34 Billion

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