Last week, I began teaching a new undergraduate course on “Dissent and Democracy in the World.” I started developing the course over a year ago, convinced that the subject is not only essential to well-functioning communities, but also not well understood or appreciated in American society today.
When the class began, our country looked different from what it did when I started down this path.
During my lifetime, I’ve taken for granted that I could speak out freely in this country. I could share views that did not align with my employer’s position or the prevailing view in my community. I could openly object to the positions of the church my family attended. I could publish my opinions in a newspaper or on social media. I might lose friends or ostracize family. I might not be invited back to someone’s house. I might not get hired for a dream job or could even lose a job or a promotion.
But never before had I been afraid that speaking my opinion or voicing my moral objections to the actions of other groups, individuals or my government would risk my government coming after my job, my finances or my freedom.
What we heard from officials of the Donald Trump administration recently were direct threats against free speech and, specifically, dissent. Vice President JD Vance told members of the public to watch their fellow citizens and report their unpalatable opinions to their employer. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, without evidence, called left-wing political organizations terrorist groups and vowed to use law enforcement to go after them “to take away your money, take away your power, and if you’ve broken the law, take away your freedom.”