“Fear drives the religious right to destroy liberal education, it also compels them to destroy democracy” — Roman Mager

According to the University of Texas, the four overriding purposes of a liberal education are; the comprehension of “liberty” and “humanism;” the “contemplation of truth and virtue” and mastering the “skills of learning, and of constructing knowledge out of information.” These objectives have been supported by every administration in memory, both Republican and Democratic, for a liberal education provides the skills needed for people to contribute to our complex society in rational and meaningful ways.

Yet the Trump administration has demanded outrageous sums from universities that champion liberal education…Columbia – 200 million; Harvard – 500 million; the University of California – one billion. They excuse their meddling by claiming that these universities support antisemitism. But protesting a war that has a civilian casualty rate of 83%is not antisemitism.

Their second excuse is that these institutions have a woke bias. And they infringe upon the independence of these schools by demanding they teach a rose-colored, conservative view of American history rather than a fact-based perspective. In short, the administration demands that these revered institutions compromise their mission, which is to search for, and teach, the truth.

There is more; our museums are also under attack. Trump recently posted, “The Smithsonian is OUT of CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was… Nothing about Success…”

Anyone who has visited the Air and Space Museum knows his claims are total nonsense. Still the White House said, “The museums will be required to change any content the Trump administration finds problematic in “tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.” The notion that Trump sycophants will be more objective than the management of the Smithsonian is absurd. Worse, their demands resonate with the fascist propaganda that was broadcast by Goebbels in Nazi Germany.

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