The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

WHEN the president of Harvard University stepped down last week under severe pressure from alumni, donors and Republican congressmen and women, Elise Stefanik literally rubbed her hands in glee. She reportedly said “Two down, one to go,” evidently referring to Congressional testimony last month during which three female presidents of prestigious American universities gave maladroit replies to a question from Stefanik about antisemitism. Harvard’s president at the time, Claudine Gay, was the second of the three to resign in the aftermath of their testimony.

The chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, Stefanik is the fourth-ranking House Republican. Stefanik is a Harvard graduate. Why was she so pleased to help dispatch her university’s president?

A colleague named Jack Bradshaw offered some insight. A respected professional, he attended both Yale and Harvard Universities. He tried to explain why Stefanik may have celebrated Gay’s downfall, and why other GOP leaders disparage the liberal, “woke” culture they decry at their own schools.

“Let’s look at four current Republican leaders,” Bradshaw said. “They share some significant experiences,” Bradshaw explained. “They are Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis and Elise Stefanik. And they attended as undergraduates perhaps the four most illustrious American universities.”

“Cruz, the Texas senator who was born in Canada and attended high school in Houston, went to Princeton as an undergraduate and Harvard Law School. Hawley, raised in Missouri which he currently represents in the US Senate, attended Stanford for his undergraduate degree and Yale Law School. DeSantis, growing up in Dunedin, Florida, attended Yale as an undergraduate and Harvard Law School. Stefanik went to a girls’ high school in Albany, New York prior to earning her undergraduate degree from Harvard.

“These GOP stalwarts were just about as well-educated as you can be in America. People who attend schools like they did are expected to become leaders. They have done so. But none of them appears to be especially sophisticated, nor do their actions and words represent the upper-crust values we associate with their schools. Instead, each appears to have become alienated from their college environment.

“Here’s what I think happened. When these four kids arrived at their undergraduate campuses, all of them had developed some degree of conservative values. They had been active in Republican politics as high-schoolers. That, together and their undoubted academic ability, no doubt impressed their college admissions officers, who are always on the lookout for diversity in their student bodies.

“And these four did diversify their classes. Because at those four schools, as at many US universities, the prevailing culture is left-leaning. Roughly half of their classes is drawn from private high schools. Many kids come from real privilege, either via their parents’ wealth or standing in the community. There is some snobbery in play here. And part of that college snobbery looks down on conservatives.”

Bradshaw paused for a moment, thinking about his next words. “My guess is that Cruz, Hawley, DeSantis and Stefanik all experienced some degree of ostracism from classmates for not only their conservative political beliefs but also from the fact that they did not graduate from prestigious, well-known prep schools.

“All four were doubtless stars in high school. DeSantis was a prep All-American baseball player in high school, for instance. Then they get to these high and mighty college campuses and they’re thrown in with other kids who devalue their experience, achievements, background and beliefs.

“It’s little wonder that they harbour some resentment. They actually experienced the cutting edge of Ivy League snobbishness that Donald Trump often vilifies but never quite qualified to experience as a high school student of his middling achievement.”

Back to Dr Claudine Gay, the 30th president of Harvard and its first black president. Featured on the cover of the university’s alumni magazine this past September, she was widely celebrated for her achievements in the byzantine bureaucracies of academia and for her courageous advocacy of minority rights.

The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay clearly symbolised a version of the contemporary American Dream whereby a bright, hard-working child born to no particular privilege can ascend to the loftiest perch in American higher education.

In impugning her scholarship, Stefanik and others were really asking whether Gay had gotten her presidential position because she is black. Ironically, as conservatives attack “diversity, equality and inclusion” in the courts and elsewhere, their Supreme Court stalwart, Clarence Thomas, is widely believed to have been chosen for his current appointment precisely because he is black.

Gay defended herself in the New York Times after resigning.

“(Attacking me) was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Trusted institutions of all types — from public health agencies to news organisations — will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility. For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal.”

A Swift distraction to help the Dolphins?

Kansas City here we come! On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins lost their division title to the Buffalo Bills. As a result, instead of hosting the surging Pittsburgh Steelers this Saturday, the Fins will travel west to Kansas City to face off against the underachieving, inconsistent defending champion Chiefs.

Many are bemoaning the resulting drop in seeding from No 2 to No 6, and the loss of at least one home playoff game. It’s easy to see Sunday’s results as a setback. Actually, the outcome might not be so lamentable.

It’s true that the oddsmakers have installed Buffalo as a whopping ten- point favorite over the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday’s first game, and that Miami has been rated a 3.5-point underdog in Kansas City.

But all is not lost. Consider that the Chiefs have actually been even less consistent than the Dolphins this year, and have hardly been insuperable at home. It is entirely possible that the romance between all-star tight end Travis Kelce and pop star Taylor Swift has become a distraction. Furthermore, former and current offensive coordinator Matt Nagy has come under fire almost all season for his management of Kansas City’s powerful offense led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs lost at home this season to three playoff teams – the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills. They also lost to the Las Vegas Raiders. They have shown vulnerability at home. This game should be worth watching on Saturday evening. Miami might just pull off an upset.

The Bills, meanwhile, host Pittsburgh in the early game Sunday afternoon. The Bills may have shrugged off their mid-season blahs. But the visitors are led by a coach in Mike Tomlin who has never experienced a losing season in an astounding 17 years as an NFL head coach. It’s also true that the Steelers have a losing playoff record under Tomlin, however, and that stud pash rusher T J Watt may not play.

But the Bills should be wary. The Steelers are almost always a tough out, and if Buffalo looks past them, they may get ambushed.

Elsewhere in the American Conference, the Browns return to Houston to face the Houston Texans, now buoyed by the return of NFL rookie of the year quarterback C J Stroud. Cleveland is a 3.5-point favorite and won easily a month ago on the same field. The Browns have valuable experience in quarterback Joe Flacco, receiver Amari Cooper and likely defensive player of the year Myles Garrett. Houston’s inexperience might hurt them.

In the National Conference, Dallas is a big home favorite (7.5 points) over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit is favored over the visiting Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. On Monday evening, the Eagles are picked to defeat the Buccaneers in Tampa.

Dallas and Philadelphia look like good bets to win and advance to the next round, though Green Bay and Tampa Bay may keep the score close until late in these games. The Lions – Rams game is intriguing because the teams’ respective quarterbacks were traded for each other just a couple of years ago. The guess here is that LA may pull a surprise upset.

One thing is certain: These games will all attract lots of viewers. According to figures just released, over 90 percent of the most-watched American television shows in 2023 were NFL games. It’s little wonder the league is so stuffed with cash.