Even before the January 6th fiasco, I had avoided voting for Donald Trump because I perceived him to be authoritarian, and his recent actions have done nothing to change that view.
Plus, there’s something I like about Vice President Kamala Harris, who used to be a tough-on-crime prosecutor.
But I cannot vote for the Vice President because her administration and many members of her party want to fire me for my political views. For John McCain, a college professor and Republican, democracy does not mean professional suicide. I will not vote to fire myself.
To gain my support and that of other moderates, Harris must demonstrate her support for free speech not only for Hamas supporters but also for the thousands of ordinary conservatives and moderates who are increasingly excluded from higher education, as Greg Lukianoff and Ricky Schrott empirically show. “The disappearance of the American mind“The ideological purge has ousted more professors than Senator Joe McCarthy did in the 1950s.”
I am a Republican, but not a partisan. I served in the Clinton Administration as well as my city’s Democratic mayor, ran for school board both times and received the Democratic endorsement. In 2020, I reluctantly, and perhaps mistakenly, voted for Biden.
But I was reminded recently of why I fear many Democrats, especially California Democrats like Harris, who have little experience working across party lines.
Her recently published, highly disturbing “The Way of War: Fighting Indians, Hypocrites, and Awakened Warriors”” Elizabeth Weiss, a former anthropology professor at San Jose State University, recounted how the state government forced her out of academia.
Weiss’s crime was to question California’s regulations that allow Native American activists (including “fake tribes” that are not affiliated with any recognized tribes) to reject archaeological research that contradicts Native American religious beliefs that tribes have always occupied their territories. As Weiss wrote: “Objective criteria“The Biden Administration has expanded these restrictions nationwide.”
Weiss also angered activists by showing that, like most of humanity, some Native American tribes engaged in unsavory practices like war and slavery. Until Weiss filed her Title IX lawsuit, California imposed tribal requirements, barring “menstruating personnel” (women like Weiss) from working with archaeological remains.
By comparison, neither California nor the Biden administration would ever allow Christian creationists to block scientific research into evolution on the grounds that it might contradict Genesis. (Of course, now that the precedent has been set, someone on the right might try to do just that.)
Last week, Kern Community College in California agreed to pay about $2.3 million to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit against Matthew Garrett, a history professor who was fired for daring to question the campus’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Garrett testified “You can’t stop this process from being painful for me and my family. You’ve forced me onto welfare. You’ve taken Christmas away from my children,” he wrote early in the lengthy legal battle.
Restrictions on free speech and scientific inquiry are becoming increasingly evident in California academia.Beyond merit: The prevalence of diversity, equity, and inclusion representation in university hiringEight of the 10 University of California campuses now require pro-DEI statements from applicants for teaching positions, presumably closing off applications to those opposed to racial quotas.
I am included in that. Most Americans of all races. The Washington Post Editors who are not MAGA supporters warn that mandating DEI statements would erode free speech.
In March, the Biden administration stepped up restrictions on free speech and inquiry on campuses, reversing Obama-era restrictions. Title IX Regulations It allows a single university official to act as prosecutor, judge and jury.
The rules also allow for investigations into subjective crimes, such as what happened to the Northwestern University professor. Laura Kipnis Kipnis denounced the paper when he wrote an essay criticizing another professor’s research. Kipnis’s paper allegedly created an “atmosphere of danger.” In essence, Democrats have created a situation in which statements or research that offend left-wing activists will be punished by left-wing academic bureaucrats.
Anti-speech regulations undermine pluralism in my industry and in society. Analysis of large-scale surveysPolitical scientist Eric Kaufman found that more than a third of conservative professors and doctoral students have been sanctioned for their views. As many as one in ten liberals face censorship, often from the left. Off campus, 48% of Americans report self-censoring at work That’s more than three times the rate during the McCarthy era.
As political scientists Jeff Spinner Halev and Elizabeth Theis-Morss write: “Respect and Dislike in American Democracy“A pluralistic democracy requires mutual respect and exchange.”
I respect the Democratic Party. In exchange for my vote, the Democratic Party must ban required DEI statements, establish a First Amendment Commission modeled after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and generally protect at-risk moderates and conservatives in higher education. These are my terms and are non-negotiable.
With nearly half of Americans self-censoring and many resenting it, there may be millions of free speech voters in states like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Vice President Harris, please don’t let us vote for Trump.
Robert Marant is chair of the 21st Century Leadership Department in the School of Educational Reform at the University of Arkansas, a former School Committee member, and a founding member of the Association for Open Research in the Behavioral Sciences. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of any particular university, institution, or organization.
