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Notes -
You know what would work even better? Destroying academia and burning the university system to the ground.
Declare war on college. Remove all government funding of higher education. Stop issuing student visas. Make hiring on the basis of degrees illegal.
College delenda est. This will not end until the last university building is reduced to ashes, the last college campus has been sowed with salt, and the last tenured professor's head sits on a pike.
That would only work if Russell Vought-tier MAGA conservatives had an unbroken hold on the Executive branch for the next 20 years. They won’t. Their policies will be reversed within five seconds of the next Democrat president taking power, or within about six months of a George Bush-tier Republican taking power. Removing funding would require Congressional approval and they won’t get that.
Next best thing is, as 2rafa says, fill the machine with your people. Next best thing is to bloat higher education with new constituencies favorable to your side. That means more funding to ROTC programs, collegiate athletics, and red-tribe-adjacent disciplines like business and engineering.
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