The conservative movement as a GOP lobby is quite dangerous to American democracy. Insofar as the conservative movement is a GOP analog and a Federalist Society recruitment base, it is a menace to American freedoms as it embraces autocratic leadership, the spread of guns in America, the exclusion of LGBTQ people from opportunity, the embracing of nationalism for Christianity, opposition to abortion and women’s right to choose, and Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Green, Lauren Boebert, and Donald Trump.

The conservative movement at Princeton produced Ted Cruz ’92, Donald Rumsfeld ’54, and Samuel Alito ’72. These individuals are hardly a ringing endorsement of a Princeton education or of being a shining example of being in the nation’s or world service. The conservative justices on the Supreme Court are wreaking havoc based on a twisted idea of originalism. Whatever Alito learned at Princeton, hopefully it did not contribute to his lack of compassion and his devotion to legalism philosophies.

Until conservatism separates itself from Trump, the GOP, election denialism, and advocacy for the free flow of guns and the suppression of rights for women, and the support of higher education institutions like Hillsdale College and the new University of Austin, which are just indoctrination factories for GOP extremists, it has no place at any institution that considers itself a credible place for study and investigation.