By Bob Topper
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.
Our national anthem ends with, “the home of the brave.” Bravery is not Trump bravado. Bravery is valor, heroism, and courage under fire. And it takes courage to look objectively at the past, which is the crucial first step in ensuring that mistakes are not repeated.
Germany mandates that the holocaust be taught as part of its national curriculum. We should continue to follow that example regarding slavery as our educational institutions and museums have done. The Trump administration’s glossing over this issue is cowardly lies.
What is behind the manipulation of these great institutions?
The Trump administration and the Republican party are dominated by Christian fundamentalists who see themselves in a desperate struggle against humanism. They fret that a humanist, rational understanding of the world will show Christianity to be another archaic and obsolete belief system, like the Greek and Roman mythologies. Because they fear that outcome, they must destroy liberal education.
Their anxiety was clearly expressed by Vice President Vance when he said “we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country. We live in a world that has been made effectively by university knowledge,” and “to rebuild the nation along the lines of white Christian Nationalism, the universities must be destroyed…the professors are the enemy.”
Vance’s perspective echoes the Christian zealots who opposed the Enlightenment three hundred years ago. Will burning witches be next?
The Trump administration regularly affirms its alignment with Christian fundamentalism. His policies are an adaptation of the Christian Nationalist’s Project 2025; he has established a White House Faith Office and a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” at the Department of Justice.” And Trump recently said “we are bringing religion [Christian fundamentalism] back in our country.”
And Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, encourages our military and civilian personnel to pray with him during working hours. This is Hegseth leading a service:
“King Jesus, we come humbly before you, seeking your face, seeking your grace, in humble obedience to your law and to your word.”
If only he had the same humble obedience to our Constitutional law.
Personally, I am glad Trump and Hegseth can pray to their god. Over a million people gave their lives defending America’s values of equality, democracy, and freedom. They did not die for religion. They gave their lives so that Americans would be free to practice any religion or no religion. These endorsements of Cristian fundamentalism violate the separation of church and state and trample on the First Amendment. And our nation is diminished, for this is what brave Americans died to prevent.
As a practical matter, we do not need a military that hopes and prays for victory. We need strong men and women who are trained and experienced in military affairs and have the will and determination to defend our values. For Presidents, Secretaries and Generals, we need competent leaders, confident in their personal strengths and abilities. Hegseth should leave praying to the professionals, the chaplains. His job is serving the American people.
Consider the war on cancer. When fighting cancer, prayer can bring peace and comfort, but it is professionals, trained in medical science, experienced oncologists who care for and cure patients using modern drugs and medical devices. Thanks to advanced treatments, there are countless cases of cancer survivors. In past generations, people were equally pious, but did not survive.
The astonishing advance in science and medicine over the past century is a credit to liberal education, the very institutions Trump now punishes. Liberal education provided researchers with the knowledge and skills needed to develop treatments that have been so successful.
Evangelicals claim without evidence, that this is “all by the grace of God.” That is their belief. But belief, not grounded in fact, is uncertain. We know with absolute certainty, however, that modern medical treatments and devices are products of liberal education. That Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccines and graduated from the New York University School of Medicine are facts.
As fear drives the religious right to destroy liberal education, it also compels them to destroy democracy. They fear that democracy will prevent them from realizing their vision of a Christian Nationalist theocracy. The Republican focus on gerrymandering and restricting voter access is clearly intended to thwart the will of the majority so that Republican theocrats can tighten their grip on our society.
This theocratic ambition is mistaken, for it is also certain that nations that are far more secular have much lower crime rates and happier populations. That is also true for the states. The New England States have low levels of religious belief and the lowest levels of violent crime. Trump crows about calling out the National Guard to stop violent crime, but he sends soldiers to the wrong places. And he has ulterior motives – spreading fear and using our military to police, replacing civilian law enforcement. These steps to an authoritarian state violate American law.
It is foolish to think that a Christian theocracy would be a better alternative. One need only look back to the horrors of the Inquisition or at the theocratic countries in the world today. Their citizens are repressed and deprived, and their cultures were bypassed by liberal democracies centuries ago. The same is true for the autocratic states like Russia, Myanmar, and North Korea. They lag far behind the people living in liberal democracies in both income and personal happiness. Liberal democracy is the best form of government yet devised by humankind.
Will we allow fear to end the great American experiment? It would seem so, but America democracy has been threatened in the past and survived. America is the home of the brave. American courage won independence and has protected the world’s first liberal democracy for 250 years.
Allowing fear, a convicted felon and a reality TV administration to destroy this heritage cannot be the end of the great American story. We the people can and will prevent that in the mid-term elections.
Bob Topper, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a retired engineer.
