The founding fathers fought a revolution to create a nation of free thinkers.
Now America’s universities are churning out ideological robots.
And Thomas Jefferson would be horrified by what America’s woke universities have become.
Jefferson’s education built America’s foundation of freedom
When Thomas Jefferson sat down to write the Declaration of Independence, he didn’t just pull those revolutionary ideas out of thin air.
The concepts that launched the American experiment came directly from Jefferson’s college years at William and Mary, where he studied under Dr. William Small from 1760 to 1762.¹
Dr. Small didn’t teach Jefferson to hate America or divide people into victim groups.
Instead, he opened Jefferson’s mind to Enlightenment philosophy, natural rights, and the radical idea that people could govern themselves.
Jefferson himself said those college teachings "probably fixed the destinies of my life."²
That’s what real education looks like – expanding minds, not closing them.
Jefferson took those lessons about reason, natural law, and human equality and turned them into the most important political document in human history.
The Declaration of Independence wasn’t written by someone who spent four years learning to hate his country.
It was written by someone whose education taught him to think critically and value individual liberty above all else.
Patrick Henry understood education’s role in preserving freedom
Patrick Henry knew that free people needed proper education to stay free.
That’s why he helped establish Hampden-Sydney College, declaring that "every free state" should promote "useful knowledge amongst its citizens."³
Henry wasn’t talking about the kind of "useful knowledge" being pushed in today’s universities – like learning which pronouns to use or how to see racism in everything.
He meant the kind of education that would prepare citizens to think for themselves and protect their rights.
Henry sent seven of his own sons to Hampden-Sydney because he believed in what they were teaching there.
Can you imagine any conservative parent today being excited to send their kids to Harvard or Yale?
The founding fathers would be shocked to learn that the institutions they created to preserve liberty have become the biggest threat to American freedom.
Today’s universities are woke indoctrination factories
Fast-forward to 2025, and we’ve got a massive problem.
The Department of Education is investigating 52 universities across 41 states for using racial discrimination in their programs.⁴
That’s right – America’s "elite" universities are under federal investigation for judging students based on skin color instead of merit.
This is the exact opposite of what Jefferson meant when he wrote that all men are created equal.
These woke universities have created an entire industry around dividing Americans by race.
They’ve spent millions on DEI programs that research shows don’t even work – and actually make things worse.⁵
Students at schools with bigger DEI departments report feeling less welcome, not more.⁶
So much for "inclusion."
The whole DEI movement is built on the toxic idea that America is fundamentally racist and needs to be torn down and rebuilt.
That’s not education – that’s indoctrination.
The founders believed in merit, not racial quotas
When Benjamin Franklin helped edit the Declaration of Independence, he made a crucial change.
Franklin changed Jefferson’s phrase "sacred and undeniable" to "self-evident" because he wanted American principles grounded in reason, not blind faith.⁷
The founders valued evidence-based thinking and rational debate.
Today’s woke universities demand the opposite – blind acceptance of their radical ideology.
Try questioning DEI programs on any campus and see what happens to you.
The founders created a system where the best ideas would win through open debate.
Today’s universities punish anyone who challenges the approved narrative.
After America won its independence, the founders immediately started thinking about education.
They knew that self-governing people needed institutions that would teach them to think critically and understand their rights.
The founders wanted universities to create informed citizens who could spot tyranny and fight back against it.
Instead, we’ve got universities that teach students to bow down to authority and accept whatever they’re told about "social justice."
Patrick Henry College shows what the founders actually wanted
While most universities have gone completely woke, there are still a few institutions that understand what the founders had in mind.
Patrick Henry College was founded to prepare students with "fidelity to the spirit of the American founding" combined with rigorous academics.
This is what Jefferson and Franklin would recognize as real education.
The founders knew that liberty required a specific type of education – what they called the classical liberal arts.
As scholars have noted, the American founders "predicated the success of their enterprise on a particular approach to education" focused on preparing people for self-governance.⁸
Patrick Henry College gets it.
They’re not trying to teach students to hate America or feel guilty about their skin color.
They’re preparing future leaders who understand both America’s founding principles and how to defend them in the modern world.
Their graduates aren’t leaving college as angry activists looking to tear down the system.
They’re becoming lawyers, politicians, and business leaders who want to restore America’s founding ideals.
Trump is fighting back against academic tyranny
President Trump recognizes that America’s universities have become a clear and present danger to our freedom.
That’s why his administration has launched an unprecedented crackdown on woke campus policies.
The Department of Education has already canceled over $2.6 million in DEI contracts and removed hundreds of web pages promoting these divisive programs.⁹
Trump’s team even sent a letter to Harvard demanding they clean up their act or lose federal funding.¹⁰
Harvard’s response? They basically told the federal government to pound sand.
That tells you everything you need to know about how far these institutions have fallen.
They care more about pushing their radical agenda than actually educating students.
Republican Governors are leading the charge
Thankfully, Republican Governors across the country are taking action to restore sanity to higher education.
West Virginia’s Governor Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order targeting what he called the "woke virus" in state universities.¹¹
West Virginia University immediately shut down its DEI office and created a new department focused on actual compliance issues instead of racial grievance-mongering.
The University of North Carolina diverted $2.3 million away from DEI programs and put the money toward public safety instead.¹²
What a concept – using taxpayer money to keep students safe instead of teaching them to hate each other.
The University of Wyoming closed its DEI office entirely.¹³
These universities are finally returning to the founding fathers’ vision of education based on merit and excellence, not skin color and victim status.
The choice is clear: freedom or indoctrination
The founding fathers built America on the radical idea that ordinary people could govern themselves if they received the right kind of education.
They created universities to expand minds, not control them.
They wanted institutions that would teach students to think critically about big questions, not just accept whatever they’re told by authority figures.
Today’s woke universities have betrayed everything the founders stood for.
They’ve turned higher education into a weapon against the very principles that made America great.
But the fight isn’t over.
President Trump and Republican Governors are proving that we can still choose the founders’ vision over the woke mob’s agenda.
The question is whether enough Americans will wake up before it’s too late.
Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry didn’t sacrifice everything to create a nation of free thinkers just so we could hand our universities over to radical leftists.
It’s time to take back higher education and restore it to its original purpose – creating educated citizens who can preserve the blessings of liberty for future generations.
The founding fathers would expect nothing less from us.
Footnotes
¹ Bradford Vivian, "America’s Founders Valued Higher Education," TIME, accessed July 2, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ "Patrick Henry," Wikipedia, accessed July 2, 2025.
⁴ "Over 50 universities are under investigation as part of Trump’s anti-DEI crackdown," NPR, March 14, 2025.
⁵ "Reversing the Woke Takeover of Higher Education: Strategies to Dismantle Campus DEI," America First Policy Institute, accessed July 2, 2025.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Vivian, "America’s Founders Valued Higher Education."
⁸ "Philosophy of Education," Patrick Henry College, accessed July 2, 2025.
⁹ "U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate DEI," U.S. Department of Education, accessed July 2, 2025.
¹⁰ "Trump targets woke universities in DEI, immigration battle," Fox News, April 29, 2025.
¹¹ "DEI office closures at universities pile up after another state orders end to ‘woke virus’," Fox News, February 3, 2025.
¹² "Three More States Drop DEI Programs at their Public Universities," Goldwater Institute, January 16, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
