For decades, the ideological divide in American politics could be roughly characterized by values: the political left pushed for anti-discrimination, equity, and inclusion, while the political right championed liberty, tradition, and patriotism. These weren’t just slogans—they were the guiding stars for political narratives and policy priorities. But something strange, even Orwellian, has happened in the last few years.
Suddenly, the American right claims to be the new vanguard of anti-discrimination. For example, framing any critique of Israel as antisemitism, advocating “colorblind” policies in education, and branding DEI as discriminatory in itself. Meanwhile, it’s now the left who are invoking the First Amendment, waving the Constitution, and shouting from the rooftops about academic freedom, freedom of speech, and, yes—patriotism. Not a blind patriotism that wraps injustice in the flag, but a democracy-defending patriotism that fights to preserve what makes our republic worth defending.
What’s happening here? Have the roles really reversed? Or is this a carefully staged performance—one where the political right borrows the language of equity and freedom in order to consolidate power and impose a narrow ideological vision on public education?
Let’s examine the evidence.
The Right’s New “Anti-Discrimination” Rhetoric: A Trojan Horse?
Let’s start with the right’s sudden interest in discrimination—specifically, the explosion of political campaigns to “protect Jewish students” on campuses by silencing criticism of Israel or Palestinian advocacy. Jewish scholars argue that these efforts are not only often disingenuous—they’re dangerous. They conflate Jewish identity with Israeli state policy, and they weaponize antisemitism claims to suppress student and faculty expression that runs counter to conservative orthodoxy.
Even as they shout about discrimination, the same politicians gut protections for LGBTQ+ students, attack the representation of people of color in educational curriculum, and dismantle DEI offices focused on student success across universities. In the same breath, they declare America to be a “colorblind” society—ignoring both history and present-day disparities. The right is not fighting discrimination; they’re redefining the word to serve their own ideological purposes. It’s a bait-and-switch.
They are not advocating for equality—they are creating a shield. A shield to justify censorship, repression, and a narrowing of the Overton window (the spectrum of ideas on public policy and social issues considered acceptable by the general public at a given time) in education and public discourse.
This shift didn’t happen by accident. It is a calculated strategy that draws from authoritarian playbooks around the world. Wrap your agenda in the language of rights, twist the meaning, and implement policies that centralize control while claiming you’re protecting the people from criminals, terrorists, and racists.
The Left’s Revival of True Patriotism
In response, we are seeing something powerful on the left: a trumpeting of democratic ideals that were once the pride of all Americans. Faculty and students—long caricatured as “woke” or “radical”—are speaking in the language of liberty and civic responsibility. They are invoking the First Amendment not to hide bigotry, but to protect inquiry, expression, and the very mission of the academy.
Harvard’s refusal to comply with federal overreach into university policy is a powerful example. Columbia students’ protests—whether you agree with every tactic or not—are rooted in a tradition of American student activism that goes back to the civil rights movement and anti-war era. It is now the left who are most vocally defending academic freedom, resisting government blacklists, and fighting to maintain the institutional independence that democracy requires.
This is not a retreat from the values of diversity and equity—it is their full expression. Democracy and inclusion are not mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, intertwined. You cannot have a truly free society when only some people are allowed to speak, learn, and thrive.
The left’s emerging patriotism is not about uncritical allegiance; it’s about holding America accountable to its highest promises. It’s about expanding freedom—not shrinking it to fit within the confines of one political ideology.
Is This a Role Reversal or a Revelation?
So have the roles truly reversed?
Not quite.
What we are seeing is not a realignment of values, but a strategic costume change by the political right. Their goals haven’t changed: they want command and control of public education. They’ve simply learned that shouting about terrorists, immigrants and “discrimination” gives them more traction than their old strategy of shouting “Christian values” or “white discrimination.”
Make no mistake: this is not about free speech. This is not about protecting students. This is about using government power to enforce ideological conformity—while pretending it’s the opposite.
Banning books, rewriting history, threatening university funding, criminalizing student protest, jailing international students—these are not acts of liberty. They are acts of coercion. They are part of a long game to dismantle public education as a space for democratic discourse and replace it with an authoritarian echo chamber.
The end goal? A sanitized, tightly monitored education system where students learn what they are told, question nothing, and mistake compliance for patriotism.
Why Education Is the Battlefield
The right understands something the left often forgets: if you control education, you control the future. Putin famously said that you win wars with teachers. That’s why they’ve made schools and universities ground zero for this culture war. Because education is not about test scores or graduation rates for the right anymore—it’s about who tells the story of America, and who gets to write the next chapter.
That’s why faculty governance, student activism, and independent scholarship are under attack. That’s why school boards are being infiltrated, and superintendents purged. That’s why CRT and DEI have become political boogeymen.
The right’s assault on education is not a side issue—it is the strategy.
What We Must Do Now
We must stop playing defense. We must call out the false flags of “colorblindness” and “reverse discrimination” that mask censorship and ideological control. We must remind the country that equity and democracy are not contradictions—they are companions.
We must reclaim the language of liberty and reframe patriotism as the defense of truth, not the imposition of lies.
And most importantly, we must build coalitions—across race, class, political affiliation, and geography—to protect our public institutions from being hollowed out by those who claim to be saving them.
Because if we lose education, we lose the ability to fight back.
This is not just a culture war—it’s a war on democracy itself.
Final Thought
So no, the roles haven’t reversed. The right has just changed tactics. They’re still pursuing the same vision of control—they’ve just figured out how to package it in a false language of equity and discrimination.
But here’s the good news: students, educators, and communities across this nation are waking up. They are fighting back. They are reclaiming patriotism, liberty, and the Constitution—not as tools of exclusion, but as blueprints for justice.
In the words of James Baldwin: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
That’s not disloyalty. That’s democracy.
And that, my friends, is real patriotism.
Please share widely.