By Will Caldwell of The College Fix
University professors have started a petition for academics to rally behind Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The petition statement, a project of Professor Daniel Klein of George Mason University and Daniel Mahoney, professor emeritus of political science at Assumption University, encourages scholars to support the Republican candidate.
As of Thursday, 51 professors had signed it. The list so far represents a mix of emeritus and current scholars from both private and public universities, including well known institutions and state schools.
Titled “Lesser Evil,” it emphasizes the founding principle of individual liberty while decrying big government, and affirms the Declaration of Independence’s exaltation of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as the “chief aims of good governance.”
According to Klein, Republicans are more predisposed to oppose stark centralization, hence his support for what he deems the “lesser evil”: the Republican presidential candidate.
“Except for a few odd places and a very few odd units on a few campuses, academia is a leftist apparatus. Academia continues to get worse,” Klein told The College Fix in a recent email. In his estimation, “it is less than 10 percent of professors who think R > D.”
The petition comes amid concerns over ideological diversity on college campuses. Reports by The Fix and others have found university faculty lean heavily Democrat.
Since The Fix’s first contact with Klein in late August, the number of signatures has doubled. The list will continue to be updated with new signatures through the November election.
“The initiative might help the Republicans to win, and certainly can’t hurt,” Klein said.
To emphasize the crux of their message, the professors included a graphic on the petition website, “Democrats bad, Republicans less bad,” that breaks down where the two parties stand on various issues, including taxes, religious liberty, censorship, asset forfeiture, and energy policy.
Continuing, Klein told The Fix other reasons for the project are “(1) To normalize the voicing of the R > D opinion within academia. (2) To get my fellow classical liberals to face up to their responsibility to decide whether R > D or D > R, as well as their responsibilities, to come to that decision virtuously and to be frank and open about holding their opinion.”
If the petition succeeds in getting professors to re-think their political leanings, it could cultivate a more amicable atmosphere for right-leaning students and professors. Klein, however, said conservatives shouldn’t hold their breath.
“I expect the downward trend to continue or hit rock bottom and stay there. I encourage the individual American to minimize academia’s sway in his or her thoughts, culture, and life,” Klein said.
But the economics professor is not alone. Some members of academia have rallied behind him, including Brooklyn College Professor Mitchell Langbert.
Langbert said he was particularly attracted to the deregulation aspect of the petition.
“I am a philosophical liberal or libertarian who believes that, in Thoreau’s words, ‘That government is best which governs least.’ … Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe, that government is best which governs not at all,” he told The Fix via email last week.
“I don’t go all the way to no government at all as do some of my anarchist friends, but a return to a role of government limited to 10 percent or 15 percent of the economy would be optimal,” Langbert said.
In his opinion, “Republicans are the lesser of two evils. They remain philosophically committed to liberalism and the rule of law.”
However, “neither party has embraced the liberal views that propelled the United States, and earlier Great Britain and Germany, to world leadership,” Langbert said.
He said Republican Party leaders “have done too little to cut harmful government programs, of which I can offer a long list beginning with the Department of Education.” He also blamed the party for allowing the “far left” to take over the education system.
His displeasure with the modern right doesn’t end with its failed policies. While he supports the petition, Langbert also expressed contempt for former President Trump.
“There are many aspects of former president Trump that are undesirable … includ[ing] his monetary and COVID policies, his appointment of Anthony Fauci, and his expansion of federal headcount during his administration. Also, his personnel choices were unwise, and he has managed to alienate many women because of his behaviors,” he told The Fix.
However, he said a Kamala Harris administration would be catastrophic.
“While President Trump can be thought of as a bad landlord, the Harris administration is a further step on the road to serfdom, a step toward totalitarianism, censorship, suppression, lawfare, and attacks on the affluent middle class,” he told The Fix.
“Democrats are a passionate, indoctrinated mob that cares little for freedom,” Langbert said.
