Trump’s justification for his actions against Harvard — the latest being losing the ability to give foreign students visas to enter the country — is that Harvard isn’t doing enough to protect Jewish students from attack.
But that is a matter for the police. Trump could perhaps request the Cambridge police to look into it — e.g., to ask those whose rights have been violated to make complaints (and granting them a safe way to do so).
What about Harvard not doing enough to combat anti-semitism on campus? Correcting bad ideas on campus is not the job of the president, nor of any department of government.
Harvard has a right to foster racism, anti-semitism, Marxism, etc. And they do! So does virtually every college in the nation, some to a lesser extent, some to a greater extent. Collectivism is the unquestioned philosophic framework of 99% of intellectuals. And those evil ideas and attitudes are instances of collectivism.
Can the government withdraw support on the basis of ideas? No. It never should have supported education in the first place—from “public” schools on up through research grants to high-powered universities. But as long as they do support these things, they have to be as ideology-blind as possible.
The right way to punish a university for racism, anti-semitism, and Marxism is by its alumni stopping their support. And by better intellectuals pointing out that these things are collectivism and that collectivism is false and lethal.
/sb
