President Joe Biden boasted last month that the conviction of Donald Trump following the prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg proved that “no one is above the law.” But Bragg’s decision to drop charges against violent anti-Israel rioters at Columbia University shows that the law does not apply to the political left. Instead, our government and justice system tolerate, and even celebrate, lawless conduct when committed by liberals.
Students at our nation’s universities, including those in Boston, hear the message loud and clear: It’s not your actions, but your message, that will determine consequences. As a result, college campuses have devolved into cesspools of self-centered brats who have zero regard for the rule of law. This is all by design.
In the case of the Columbia University students and staff members who forcefully seized campus buildings, Judge Kevin McGrath said that the “matters are dismissed and sealed in the interest of justice.”
A similar sentiment is being broadcast to college students in Boston. After more than 100 Emerson College students were arrested for defiantly blocking public spaces, Emerson president Jay Bernhardt assured the law-breakers on his campus that they would not be punished by the school. He even urged the city to drop charges against all those arrested. Meanwhile, the mainstream media portrayed the arrested protesters as victims, bemoaning the “horrific” police sweep.
If the protesters had been demonstrating for a conservative cause, the reaction would likely have been very different. There is little doubt that if Trump supporters seized and barricaded academic buildings on the campuses of Emerson or Columbia, they would have been expelled, punished and branded as “insurrectionists.”
Colleges have been reshaped into factories of left-wing indoctrination that seek to destroy our nation’s systems — including and especially the rule of law. At almost $80,000 per year after tuition, fees, and room and board, students often graduate with little in the way of job prospects or practical skillsets. Instead, they are inculcated with a strong sense of entitlement and political dogma. They can shout, but they can’t think.
Schools that portray themselves as elite are now political daycares, bringing some of the most noxious left-wing fantasies to the American mainstream. Radical ideas such as “abolishing prisons” and ending policing as we know it have gone from the faculty lounge to infiltrating the justice system itself. What impact will the radical climate university campuses have on the next generation of prosecutors, who could weigh their cases on the suspects’ political intentions? How will this impact the nation’s hardworking and brave police, who have proven themselves vital in the last several years?
Those in power have a lot to gain from radicalizing our nation’s young people. The recent anti-Israel protests will fill a similar role as the 2020 George Floyd riots within the Democratic Party, allowing violence or the threat of it to hang over public discourse. The riots four years ago helped galvanize support behind Joe Biden and may have played a key role in getting him elected. In 2024, the violent protesters may be setting us up for something worse.
Colleges should reinforce the ideas of individual responsibility, true equality before the law, and the value of law and order. Our nation’s survival may hinge on whether or not we will have a generation capable of taking on serious challenges. And our “elite” colleges are churning out children in adult bodies.
There is some good news. The pendulum appears to already shifting away from the protesters and toward common sense. Emerson recently announced layoffs after the fall semester’s enrollment was “significantly below” what the college was expecting. Parents increasingly don’t want to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for their children to be molded into entitled and militant rioters. Layoffs will likely come to other campuses around the nation, as well, as enrollments drop like a rock. (Perhaps it’s a silver lining that some lefty professors will lose their jobs.) A wave of colleges have closed completely in just the last year.
Prospective families understand that years of grade inflation and declining standards caused a serious decline in our nation’s universities. The fact that students can protest in ways that brazenly offend the rule of law in support of Oct. 7 has been the straw that broke the camel’s back for many parents and the general public.
One of the great conceits of large or old organizations is the sense that they will last forever. The traditional college model is rapidly becoming obsolete, with the harbinger of its death on display at our nation’s universities. Just as the flame of liberty emanated out of Boston in the 1770s, we have a chance for a new invigoration of true education and responsibility to come out of our colleges.
Kristin Tate is a political columnist and author based in Massachusetts. Her latest book is “The Liberal Invasion of Red State America.” Follow her on X @KristinBTate.
