The Age of Trump is accidental. Project 2025, Trump’s own Agenda 47, and the other plans to make him a dictator on “day one” of his presidency to end multiracial pluralistic democracy are part of a much older and larger project. For decades, the American right has been developing a revolutionary campaign to radically transform American society to make it less democratic and to further concentrate power in the hands of a relatively small number of rich white “Christian” men.

At its core, democracy means the ability of citizens to exercise effective political agency and power in their society. Today’s Republicans and so-called conservatives fundamentally reject that principle. They want to return the United States to the Gilded Age — if not before — as they transform the country into a new apartheid Christofascist plutocracy.

The American (and global) right’s revolutionary project to end multiracial pluralistic democracy involves taking over not just the political realm but every aspect of society from culture to technology to the economy and education. The right-wing and its neofascists and other authoritarians know that by controlling the country’s educational system they can create compliant citizens who will be drones, trained to obey and not to practice critical thinking or otherwise resist the powerful. The struggle for America’s future and its democracy is taking place in America’s classrooms today.

"This is an existential election. It is even more so than in 2020 because Trump has surrounded himself with a group of advisors and policymakers who are very serious about ending democracy."

Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the author of Erasing History: How Fascists Change the Past to Control the Future. In this conversation, he explains the role that education plays in a democratic community and how colleges and universities can better defend themselves against attacks by the Trumpists, neofascists, "conservatives," and other enemies of democracy and freedom. The myth of “liberal higher education,” Stanley notes, is belied by the fact that neofascists such as Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attended some of the country’s most elite universities yet are now working to undermine and delegitimate such institutions. Stanley also reflects on how the right-wing has weaponized such concepts as DEI and free speech in their campaign against education and democracy.

Stanley has a warning for liberals and progressives: Do not fall into the trap of being useful idiots by engaging in political debate with intellectually dishonest people during this time of ascendant fascism.

Related

How are you feeling? How are you making sense of where we are in the story that is the Age of Trump now that Kamala Harris is the Democratic Party nominee?

This is an existential election. It is even more so than in 2020 because Trump has surrounded himself with a group of advisors and policymakers who are very serious about ending democracy. With Project 2025, Trump's own Agenda 47, and other plans, they are ready from day one of his regime to move to authoritarianism. It's “all hands on deck” right now. There is really no excuse for not being involved in this election. The choice between Harris and Trump is the most important election in the world right now.

Joy is not a strategy. That having been said, joy and hope can help to power the Democrats and the larger pro-democracy movement to victory over Trump and the other neofascists. I am worried that too many people are too happy much too soon because Harris is the nominee which means they may not be willing to do the hard work now to defeat Trumpism. Given their premature exuberance, they may be brought crashing down to earth once the reality of how close the election is going to be finally sets in. If Trump wins it may break them psychologically and emotionally. This is a war,........

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