It’s All About the Line

Free speech and bad faith.

With apologies to Dave Matthews, so much to say, so much to say, so much to say about the recent brouhaha involving the Congressional testimony of the presidents of three high-profile universities on the topic of antisemitism on campus.

I’ll Come In Again

Where to begin?

1) Bad Faith Actors

Well, you might be shocked to hear this, but clearly the Republican congressmembers of the House Education and Workforce Committee — led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the Charlotte Corday of MAGA Nation — were not so much conducting the people’s business as grandstanding for the GOP base over the make-believe issue of “wokeness.” They did so with a bad faith attack on representatives of academia, one of conservatives’ favorite bogeymen. (Or should I say, “bogeywomen.” The icing on the cake for Trumpies was that all three university presidents were female, and one was Black.)

More concretely, Republicans would like to find justification for cutting federal funding to protect the civil rights of marginalized groups across the board. So the hearing was less about protecting minorities than about hurting them.

2) Fail to Prepare and Prepare to Fail