The Wall Street Journal ran a provocative
this week, under the headline: Is Harvard Worth Saving — and How?
The issue is whether the famed institution’s vital research and educational activities outweigh the moral rot exhibited by its bumbling reaction to an outbreak of virulent antisemitism following the October 7 massacre in Israel. Several members of its editorial board were given space to express their views. It was a worthy enough exercise but perhaps too limited in scope. A more pertinent question would be: is the United States worth saving, and how?
It should be an easy answer. The world’s most powerful democracy must certainly be worth saving. What’s not clear is what represents the authentic United States: the country as most of us have imagined it over the past seven or eight decades, or the emerging junta in Washington with its strongman president waging war on its customs, institutions and previously accepted notions of decency?
The U.S. as we imagined it, and as Americans proclaimed it to be, acted as a bulwark against the enemies of individual rights and freedoms. It sought friendship and alliances with like-minded countries. It believed in the rule of law. For all its many faults, it offered protection and encouragement for a set of western values that brought peace and prosperity to a swath of the planet that included many of its most admired and successful countries.
Five months into the second Trump administration, it’s difficult to argue that’s still the case. When the president
the governor of the country’s most populous state should be arrested for failing to bow to his will, it can’t be shrugged off as just another example of a mischievous chief executive stirring the pot. “The bar is what I think it is,” Trump responded when asked to identify the standard for
active troops to oppose street protests in California over the objections of the state’s elected leader.
It’s not realistic to suggest he’s only kidding when he says these things, as jocular as he might like to make it. All of Wall Street and many of America’s trade partners thought he was kidding when he promised a raft of ruinous and self-damaging tariffs. Canadians thought he was kidding when he started musing about turning their country into the 51st state.
“We’re gonna have troops everywhere,” Trump said, shortly before sending in Marines, on top of the National Guard, on top of immigration agents and the local police, as a show of force against protests in Los Angeles. The demonstrations were organized in opposition to the White House’s war on illegal aliens, which has seen stepped-up raids by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents as Washington seeks to follow through on its pledge to forcibly deport millions of illegals.
Whether the president — any president — has the power to seize command of state troops simply by issuing a directive remains to be
by the courts, but Trump is also in the midst of a battle of wills with American judges and lawyers, launching personal attacks against those who defy him, demanding judges be impeached for rulings he dislikes, pressuring law firms he views as political enemies and frightening enough of them to raise questions about the state of judicial independence and the reliability of the law itself as a protection against a president who feels free to ignore it.
Trump’s strategy in his second term has been to crush institutions he sees as a threat to his whims. Harvard is the richest and most prestigious of U.S. universities; if he can succeed in humbling it, the message will be clear to all the others.
Harvard’s mistake was its failure to adequately address longstanding
about a culture of antisemitism within its ranks. The accusations carry considerable validity, but Trump has rarely shown much authentic concern about matters of prejudice or bigotry. On Tuesday, he ordered a half-dozen military bases to be renamed in
of Confederate figures who waged a civil war to protect slavery. Harvard’s failure appeals to him mainly as a vulnerability he can exploit as a means of weakening it.
What’s most disturbing about Trump’s destructive impulses is how extraordinarily successful they’ve been. Allies in Europe, Canada and Asia are pouring vast amounts into long-neglected defence forces after decades of ignoring demands from Washington.
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is at long last moving seriously to reduce its heavy dependence on U.S. trade. Democratic countries that habitually relied on the U.S. to do much of the world’s heavy lifting are scrambling to establish closer and firmer bonds with one another to protect against the world’s nastier powers in lieu of Washington’s willingness to continue doing it for them.
While Washington readies for a massive communist-style military
through the capital on Trump’s birthday, even the world’s richest man recognized the
of getting on the wrong side of so delicate an ego. “I regret some of my posts about President (Donald Trump) last week. They went too far,” tweeted a humbled Elon Musk.
Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Californians in a televised address that their president was actively seeking to undermine democracy in favour of an authoritarian replacement. “California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here,” he charged. “Other states are next. Democracy is next.”
But Newsom makes a poor
to lead the resistance, no matter how often he’s cited as a potential Democratic presidential nominee. California is viewed in much of the country as a bastion of the ruinous left-wing idealism that is driving
people and businesses while cities burn and essential services fail.
Before the crisis in Los Angeles diverted attention, Newsom faced a revolt in his own government over the severity of environmental regulations and their impact on the economy. Two major California refineries recently
they will shut down operations in the wake of a new set of
approved by Newsom. A third refinery said it was moving its headquarters to Texas. The move will affect thousands of jobs.
Gas prices, according to an estimate from the University of Southern California, could hit US$8 (C$11) a gallon. Fuel imports have
as suppliers replaced lost refining capacity with purchases from South Korea and Asia instead. Every time a rock is tossed or a car is torched by activists in Los Angeles, it convinces many Americans that Trump is justified in lowering the boom on such an unmanageable mess.
It’s another example of how fortunate the president is in his opponents. He won elections over a deeply unpopular Hillary Clinton and an inept Kamala Harris. Democrats still have no one in sight who might serve as a better opponent.
The two figures capturing the most headlines are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both firebrands who are convinced that the road to redemption is a determined march deeper into the leftist fringes. Either would be a godsend to the presidential aspirations of Vice-President J.D. Vance and the continued dominance of the Trumpist doctrine.
Trump’s favourability rating is down a bit, but it’s been a lot worse. Americans as a whole don’t seem overly concerned, or particularly attentive to, the rampaging assault on their institutions and alleged values. If you were to place a wager on the administration’s future, you’d probably get decent odds that the erosion of America’s status as a reliable, trustworthy and friendly ally isn’t anywhere near the end of its decline.
Most of the staffers assessing whether Harvard should be saved gave an unenthusiastic “I guess,” while stipulating that it was up to the university to lead the effort. Is America itself worth saving? It’s not evident that Americans feel motivated yet to make the effort. By the time they are, it may already be too late.
National Post
