As college-educated voters increasingly gravitate toward the Democratic Party, Republicans have ramped up their characterizations of the nation’s universities as havens for an out-of-touch liberal elite.
In recent months, the GOP has pushed back against student loan relief, lambasted college athletic programs that permit transgender athletes to compete, blasted university diversity initiatives and railed against the influence of foreign money in academia. But this week, both parties found broad agreement after a contentious congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
The presidents of three elite universities were asked during the hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their institutions’ policies against bullying and harassment. Their carefully worded responses, couched in legalistic language that attempted to draw a distinction between speech and action, drew swift condemnation across the political spectrum.
