America's Illiberalism Doom Loop

"Rather than restoring academic freedom, the Trump administration has tried to force private universities into accepting commissars to oversee whom they admit and what they teach. President Donald Trump decried the many civil and criminal cases against him and his supporters. Instead of ending lawfare, the president is publicly jawboning his attorney general into prosecuting his political antagonists, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, even when the underlying evidence seems weak."

"Two weeks ago, the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a close ally of the White House, brought threats of even more reprisals. Those who say unsympathetic things about Kirk should be reported to their employer, the vice president said. Left-wing political groups should be investigated, the White House deputy chief of staff said. The late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel should be taken off the air, the Federal Communications Commission chair said. (ABC briefly obliged.)"

"Those threats are difficult to reconcile with the pledges Trump made in his second inaugural address: to "stop all government censorship and bring back free speech in America" and to never again let "the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents." Instead, cancel culture has been rehabilitated by the right and rebranded as "consequence culture" -the exact phrase used by its enemies on the left."

Revolutionaries often come to resemble their nemeses when in power, and Republicans have adopted tactics they once condemned. The Trump administration has attempted to impose government overseers on private universities and pressured the attorney general to prosecute political opponents despite weak evidence. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, senior officials urged reporting critics, investigating left-wing groups, and restricting a comedian’s platform. Those actions contradict pledges to end government censorship and to avoid weaponizing state power. The right has rebranded cancel culture as 'consequence culture.' This tit-for-tat illiberalism threatens liberal democracy by undermining individual rights and equality.

Read at The Atlantic