As a general rule, political scientists tend to shy away from taking public stands for — or against — candidates that might make them appear partisan or somehow lacking in scientific objectivity. So it’s notable that a large group of political scientists has now signed an open letter warning that their academic experience persuades them that Donald Trump poses a unique menace to American democracy.
The letter, which was signed by hundreds of political science professors at U.S. colleges and universities, defends the decision to weigh in on this particular election by noting that “our profession has always had strong normative commitments” to the convictions that “peace is preferable to war, freedom to tyranny, justice to injustice, equality to inequality, democracy to authoritarianism,” as well as to John Adams’ notion that our government must be one “of laws, and not of men.”