When MAGA and the Ivy League Become Each Other’s Worst Enemies

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I spot them ten meters ahead at the street corner, talking quietly, half a block away. Soldiers in full uniform, in broad daylight, in a peaceful neighborhood on the outskirts of Georgetown. I lift my camera and walk toward them, not quite sure what to expect. I check that my passport – with the journalist visa stamped in – is easily accessible in my jacket pocket.

They break off their conversation and turn toward me. I ask if they have any objections to my taking their photograph. The team leader answers politely that they are under orders not to fraternize with civilians, but that they cannot physically stop me from taking pictures. I ask whether it would be all right if I jog back the way I came, take up position, and perhaps they could walk past?

The team leader’s laconic reply: they’re heading that way anyway.

And so they do. They walk toward me and pass. I fire off a series of shots, lower my camera, and call out a thank-you. The team leader’s stern expression gives way to a broad smile. Then they’re gone.

I catch myself thinking that the whole encounter was almost pleasant.

Fakta

Academia vs. Trump

Will America’s democratic institutions survive Trump?

As unrest spreads, researchers and lecturers at universities are doing what they can to keep activities running as normally as possible. In laboratories and lecture halls, it’s business as usual. But the disruptions are mounting. What are faculty thinking about their situation—now, in the near future, and in the longer term? How are the students doing?

In a series of articles funded by the Fritt Ord Foundation, The University Newspaper and Uniforum will visit a number of universities in the United States this fall. We report on the situation as it is experienced on the ground.

«Did they arrest you?»

Later that same day, a professor at Georgetown University shakes her head sorrowfully as she tells me her students seem to have grown accustomed to having soldiers around them. The next day, a Black academic tells me he is afraid of police officers – regardless of their race. When he sees them coming, he crosses to the other side of the street. Three days later, I’m talking with a friend who lives and works in New York, a man who has spent twenty years on Manhattan and is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. When I mention that I photographed National Guard soldiers in Washington, he bursts out: «What happened? Did they arrest you?!»

Here’s the thing: I come from the outside. The Guardsmen could tell from my accent and mannerisms that I was from somewhere in northern Europe. An outsider. An observer – not a participant in the war playing out in this country.

Because that’s what it looks like: a war. A war over culture, history, and identity.

«How are they holding up?»

The purpose of this reporting trip has been to listen to the people doing the day-to-day work at America’s universities – the professors whose job is to guide students toward degrees and to produce new knowledge. What is it like to work at institutions now designated as the enemy? Not only that – they themselves are the enemy, labeled as such by the vice president: The professors are the enemy.How are they actually doing?

I’ve written eight articles about what they told me. Later, at a social gathering, someone asked what the professors were like. Was there a common thread? That’s when it struck me.

The interview transcripts show a clear pattern. They often begin with me saying something like, «I have a few questions prepared, but perhaps we can start with how you experience your own situation.» Then quite some time passes before I speak again. At times it feels like conducting a debriefing. The professors talk about what they’ll do if they lose all research funding, if the students disappear, if their jobs vanish. They speak in long, breathless stretches. It’s like writing this piece with Burning Down the House – the Cardigans with Tom Jones – playing in your headphones.

Why is that? Have I simply stumbled upon an unusually anxious set of academics?

Angry Americans

At the iconic Strand Bookstore in New York I pick up Why We’re Polarized by New York Times columnist Ezra Klein. Klein pulls together a vast body of political science research on American culture and history. He offers compelling explanations but no solutions.

Things began to go wrong long before Donald Trump, he writes. People have stopped talking to one another out of fear of the consequences. My Manhattan friend tells me that people around him – in the subway, at work, at family dinners – have become so quick to anger. If you bump into someone on the subway, it instantly flares up. The fear that someone might pull out a gun is always present. A couple of the professors say their friends have bought firearms to keep at home – people who have never held a gun before, middle-aged adults who, when they were students, were surrounded by anti-war activists.

Where political identity once ran across intersecting lines—ethnicity, religion, class, geography, education – they now increasingly overlap. Klein writes: 

«As our many identities merge into single political mega-identities, those visceral, emotional stakes are rising – and with them, our willingness to do anything to make sure our side wins.»

The car you drive – a Prius or a pickup – the groceries you buy – organic, locally produced goods at Trader Joe’s or ultra-processed meals at Dollar General – all signal your political identity. Whether you’re Catholic or Evangelical. Whether you prefer indie rock or classic rock. Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift. Designer sunglasses or clip-ons. Whether you went to college or went straight into work –or unemployment – after high school.

It’s the culture, stupid.

Fake Science

That’s the impression left after many conversations – on and off the record – the updated version of Bill Clinton’s old credo. Universities have become battlegrounds in the culture war. MAGA and the Ivy League are now bitter enemies.

Several professors admit that few faculty members at institutions like Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Georgetown lean toward the MAGA movement. Students at Harvard tell me there are a few ultraconservative student groups that make outrageous pronouncements – «female students should not be allowed to move freely on campus,» that sort of thing – but that most of it is childish posturing. Even so, memorial services were held on campus after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

«Fake news, fake science,» Trump says. Journalists and professors share a common trait: you can’t trust them. They (we) are liars, enemies of the people.

And, to be fair, MAGA has a few valid points. An internal Harvard review last year found that only a third of graduating seniors felt comfortable expressing their views on controversial topics on campus.

He was their first black dean - till he was removed

The fate of Ronald Sullivan Jr. illustrates this well. Sullivan, a law professor and dean of Winthrop House at Harvard, was the first Black professor to hold that position – until he joined Harvey Weinstein’s defense team, a perfectly ordinary assignment for a law professor. Students said this made them feel «unsafe,» and his appointment was not renewed. The person who oversaw his removal was Claudine Gay, who later became Harvard’s president – until she, too, was pushed out after being grilled in a Senate hearing.

Or take the case of Roland Fryer, a Harvard economics professor. In 2016 he published a study concluding that although Black and Latino people were far more likely to be subjected to non-lethal force, he found no statistical evidence that police were more likely to shoot Black people than white people in a given police–citizen encounter.

Fryer also faced an internal investigation after students reported feeling unsafe around him. Professors are not supposed to joke to students that a certain older, loveless Harvard professor «hasn’t gotten any since Black people were slaves,» which Fryer did on one occasion. Gay again played a central rolein these disciplinary proceedings as well.

Both Frey and Sullivan Jr. are African American (as is the professor Fryer joked about). It did not help them.

Fake History

The day I walked around Harvard’s central campus, photographing the statue of the university’s founder was a must. As I stood there, I watched tourists line up to pose while touching the statue’s shoe. A quick Google search revealed that touching John Harvard’s left toe supposedly brings good luck. It also revealed that the statue does not depict John Harvard—no one knows what he looked like—and that John Harvard did not found Harvard; he was simply an important donor.

A Trump supporter could easily twist this into a claim that the liberal stronghold of American academia rests on a falsehood. Fake history.

That doesn’t stop tourists and visiting parents from lining up to touch the toe. You never know. One can imagine an American university president or two doing the same. American academia could use a bit of luck.