Trump is ‘existential threat to democracy,’ he says
President Donald Trump is an “existential threat to democracy,” according to a University of Pennsylvania professor.
So it is important higher education is careful how it talks about politics so as not to encourage voters to support the former president out of spite for the elites, Professor Jonathan Zimmerman wrote recently.
“Let me be clear: Like most of my colleagues, I regard Donald Trump as an existential threat to our democracy,” Zimmerman (pictured) wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday.
“A second Trump presidency would be a disaster for the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, and many other essential American principles and practices,” he wrote, joining the chorus of professors warning democracy is over for if Trump wins in November.
But “if you want to stop him, dear professors, stop giving Americans more grounds to distrust us,” he wrote.
Academics “are playing right into his hands,” Zimmerman wrote.
He wrote:
Political scientists have shown that many Republicans dislike Trump but plan to vote for him anyway because they dislike the Democratic Party more. And that includes the institutions they say have been captured by the Democrats: mainstream media, Hollywood, and — yes — universities.
“So, the more reason we give people to hate on higher education, the more likely they are to pull the lever for Trump,” Zimmerman wrote. “Yet we keep assisting him — however inadvertently — in at least four ways.”
Those four ways are: calling America and higher ed racist, policing language (i.e. the use of the unpopular “Latinx”), and “suppressing dissent around trans issues.”
“Most Americans support the right of people to define their own gender identities,” he wrote. “They differ about whether trans people should be allowed to participate on sports teams — and shower in locker rooms — that match their gender.”
“But we academics have decreed that anyone who raises concerns about the subject is a ‘transphobe,’” the professor at Lia Thomas’ alma mater wrote.
“Never mind that some female trans athletes have suggested that competing against other women gives them an unfair advantage,” he wrote. “They’re wrong and we’re (always!) right. Any questions?”
Zimmerman wrote:
I’m not asking my fellow professors to change what they believe, about trans athletes or anything else. I’m asking them to show more humility about those beliefs, and — especially — to show more tolerance toward Americans with different ones.
“If we call them bigots and ignoramuses, they will turn toward the welcoming embrace of You Know Who.”
MORE: Professor mocks leftists for claiming ‘democracy dies’ if Republicans win
IMAGE: University of Pennsylvania
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