Connecting the Authoritarian Dots

It's not just about Harvard, Comcast, or Abrego Garcia

Charlie Sykes

Apr 17, 2025

487

Transcript

Quick video connecting the dots between these stories:

There’s a pattern here. And so, it’s important to recognize that this is not just about Harvard, Comcast, or Abrego Garcia.

This is an attack on free speech, the independence of civil society, and the respect for due process. And if it succeeds, there may be no going back.

Please give it a listen (or watch).

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BONUS LINKS

Peter Wehner: “America’s Mad King” — The Atlantic [Gift link]

WE’RE FEWER THAN 90 DAYS into Trump’s second term; many more collisions between the president and the real world will come. So what can we expect, based on what we’ve witnessed?
We won’t see qualities from Trump that we haven’t seen before, but we will see them in a more extreme version. He is more impulsive, more vindictive, and more anarchic than in his first term. “He’s at the peak of just not giving a f--- anymore,” a White House official familiar with Trump’s thinking told The Washington Post. “Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a f---. He’s going to do what he’s going to do.”
Trump is America’s Mad King.

Wehner then documents all the crazy things that have happened so far. Definitely worth bookmarking.

Harvard is right to fight - Walter Olson

I'm glad that Harvard is fighting back, and I hope other institutions do too. What makes my heart sink is to see conservative and even reputedly libertarian legal and policy thinkers who spent years resisting Washington’s heavy hand in university governance turn into cheerleaders now that they see “their” side doing it.