In an open letter published May 2, 2017 in UCLA’s Daily Bruin, history Professor Teo Ruiz penned an invite to all students, staff and faculty to join him and other professors every Monday in front of Bunche Hall to protest the Trump administration. The plan is to convince anyone within earshot that key on Trump’s agenda is to destroy the environment, do away with civil liberties, and give healthcare the old heave-ho and cast it out of America’s existence forever.

Twenty-one other UCLA professors signed the letter, which equated Trump’s presidency and administration to an “Orwellian nightmare,” referring to George Orwell’s “1984”, which portrays a government that is destructive to a free and open society, and expresses an attitude of fierce control by the use of propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation.

“We gather there to bear witness to the Orwellian nightmare that is the presidency of Donald Trump, and to let the world know that we cannot let this become normal. We demonstrate because we fear that the mendacious statements, outrageous policies and sheer administrative incompetence of the Trump administration will eventually exhaust the majority of the people in this country, causing them to accept as normal what should never be the nature of our civic and political life under any circumstance,” Ruiz’s letter states.

One must speculate that the author slept through Obama handing over billions of dollars to Iran – the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world. It also calls to reason this distinguished professor – the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship – was not paying particular attention while North Korea’s nuclear arsenal became more refined, sophisticated and a danger to the world at large. Surely such an outspoken government critic would have protested these egregious cerebral shortcomings throughout Barrack Hussein Obama’s reign of ineptitude.

Google does not provide any evidence Professor Ruiz protested either of these events which could quite literally destroy planet earth considering both of these countries are after nuclear power and neither can be trusted to keep earth intact. Let’s face it, Kim Jong-un is like a kid who got a really cool transformer for Christmas when he was a kid and now he wants to blow up the world with it. And Iran, well… it’s a pile of dirt in the Middle East where they’ve been blowing each other up since the beginning of time because that’s what they do.

Interestingly enough, there is a connection between Ruiz and Obama which could explain Ruiz’s mental lapse in protesting these potentially earth-shattering miscalculations. In 2012, President Obama awarded Ruiz the National Humanities Medal at the White House. It’s a given that a shiney medal isn’t really fair compensation for turning a blind eye to reckless actions that could lead to the annihilation of the world – one would expect perhaps some gummy bears to sweeten the deal – so what gives?

It is possible that deep down underneath all the layers of wolves’ clothing professors such as Ruiz gave Obama a free ride and overlooked every mountain of absurdity that sprung up through the Obama years because he was black and every single minority is beyond reproach because those who dare wander into that minefield are automatically labeled racists, misogynists and twenty other newfangled insults? Is it because democrats stick together through thick and thin and will follow the leader even if it’s over a cliff? One can only speculate.

What is clear is this professor is on the precipice of the deep end and someone needs to reign him in. He cautions our country faces “a return to a world without health care, which is and ought to be a right for all those who live here. Yet, the United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee health care for all its citizens, and our country’s leaders intend to keep it that way.”

For one, as an established country, America has never been without healthcare. For two, healthcare is available to anyone who requires it; a hospital is obligated to care for sick patients whether or not they have a viable means of repaying the debt. What Ruiz seems to be inferring is Trump will not establish a socialist healthcare system. The obvious response to this professor is he’s not in Cuba anymore and America has never in its history had a socialist healthcare program. We don’t live in a socialist regime that takes half of our income in taxes and owns all the land, and it has nothing to do with President Trump.

There’s a cost that comes with living in a free, capitalistic country; you must earn and pay your own way. Wildly enough, in the land of the free and home of the brave, the notion of socialism seems to be all the rage now, especially on college campuses. Americans want the handouts of socialism but many don’t fully realize the cost is giving up your freedom as the government is in complete control of money, distribution, land, everything. Those are not the values this country was built on, and immigrants fleeing persecution and socialism from their own countries must adapt to the American lifestyle and not bring their socialist upbringing with them.

Ruiz goes on a tirade in what comes across at times like a hysterical prelude to doomsday, warning, “We now face a new and menacing world of “alternative facts,” dishonesty, fearmongering, racism, misogyny and incompetence.” He implores readers to “fight with us for your future, society’s future and our university’s future. We will go on resisting for our children and grandchildren who may have to live in a world in which decades of social progress have been swept away by authoritarian and regressive policies.”

To talk about fearmongering and Trump in the same article is ludicrous when every other day democrats are screaming, “It’s the end of the world and Trump must be stopped!” much like Ruiz’s letter to college students at UCLA. This letter is nothing more than an avenue of brainwashing the political stragglers into believing Trump is the embodiment of evil and unwholesomeness, while at the same time forcing socialism down their throats. Socialism is not American, and globalism is not patriotic no matter how you spin it.

It’s absurd to accuse trump of using “alternative facts” when in 18-months’ time the liberal news media took a popular reality TV star and famous New York real estate mogul and turned half the country venomously against him by bombarding their viewers with non-stop, 24-hour a day negative Trump branding. The phenomenal power of advertising was and still is on full display at the hands of those with a responsibility to the public to be neutral, objective and non-partisan. They failed miserably.

There still seems to be much confusion over the term “alternative facts,” as is evident by Ruiz falling in line with other liberals latching on to turn-phrases to diminish Trump. “Alternative facts” was coined by Kellyanne Conway and was in response to the liberal news anchors laying out their perspective or what they felt to be true as indisputable facts when formulating their interview questions. Conway was being asked questions that were built on questionable premises and refused to take the bait because any answer she would give to the question would validate the false premise being pushed by the anchors, thus the birth of “alternative facts.”

In the most ironic twist to spring off the digital version of Ruiz’s prattling discourse, he writes, “A university is a place for the exchange of ideas, open discourse and the discussion of truth.” There are too many examples someone who’s even completely out of touch with college campuses could proffer to refute this premise. In fact, one word can sum it up: Berkeley. But moving past this, his own writing invalidates this premise.

This is not an open call for an exchange of ideas and open discourse because he’s urging students and faculty to “stand together against the Trump administration’s war on liberty and basic fact.” His prose then moves from creating an urgent necessity for action to fearmongering. “This is a war that closely matches the one waged by the government in George Orwell’s chilling novel “1984″. Along those [lines], we must also assert that two plus two is not five, that ‘ignorance is not knowledge,’ that ‘freedom is not slavery,’ that ‘peace is not war’ – regardless of what the Trump administration would like for you to believe.” All students, staff and faculty are asked to, “Bring signs to articulate your opposition and your engagement.”

A university is a place for the exchange of ideas, open discourse and the discussion of truth.

This is not a stand against the Trump administration but a war against ideas, thoughts, beliefs and opinions that are in opposition to the way liberals want the world to be. It’s the same tactic used by the liberal news media. He has set up his premise or belief system and any discourse continues from that point forward. If you don’t agree with the premise that Trump’s administration is undertaking a “war on liberty and basic fact,” as he articulates, you can’t stand together and have an exchange of ideas.

An exchange of ideas must begin with basic and simple truths that everyone agrees on. It’s only from there that strides can be made to find an equilibrium and common ground. Publishing this letter or any like it will never serve to open an avenue of discussion because anyone with an opposing view will either withdraw or come across as combative. A show of force from liberal professors will not change the minds of students and faculty firmly rooted in their beliefs. There will only be a line drawn in the sand that separates the two.

This ploy could manage to win over those who want to fit in or need to be told on which side of the issues they should stand to take the moral high ground. There just happens to be an ethical issue. The job of a teacher is to impart knowledge and guidance and teach students how to think critically and traverse through opposing points of view and come to their own conclusions. This letter only serves the view of the professors who signed their names to it. It in no way suggests Trump is anything but a racist, dishonest, misogynistic, Orwellian nightmare who needs to be stopped. To the conservative student or Trump supporter, Ruiz’s message is quite clear: Join us in the quad for a conservative beat-down and Trump-shaming. And don’t forget your hate signs!