Harvard Professors Shocked, Disheartened By Trump Victory. The Tenured Professors Face The Reality They Don't Much Understand American Politics Today.

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Some of Harvard’s authorities on American politics, government, and economics shared feelings of shock and warned of instability in the political system after Donald Trump became president-elect, contrary to the predictions of pundits and pollsters.

“From the beginning, I’ve not anticipated Donald Trump in any regard,” government professor Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 said. “ I kept thinking he would come to an end.”

Mansfield, among the minority of outspoken conservative intellectuals at Harvard, said he thought a lack of education among the American electorate contributed to Trump’s unexpected success.

“The whole thing is a victory of the lower half of the American IQ,” said Mansfield, who chose to write in Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, for president.

Harvard faculty tend to lean liberal in their political views. A Crimson analysis in February showed that 91 percent of contributions to presidential candidates at the time went to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Some of Mansfield’s colleagues expressed concern that the Trump presidency will further divide a nation already polarized after one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in modern history.

“It’s a real disaster for American politics,” Government professor Jennifer L. Hochschild said. “There’s a huge section of the population that was so angry, mistrustful, furious, that they were prepared to take an enormous risk.”

Government and sociology professor Theda R. Skocpol called Trump’s election “a crisis comparable to the Civil War.”

Skocpol, who supported Clinton in the election, said she was nervous about the businessman’s victory because of her own scholarship, some of which has focused on conservatism in America.

“I think that the disorganization and internal conflict of the Republican party have opened the door to someone winning this presidency that even the vast majority of Americans believe is not qualified to be president,” she said. “We’re in for a terrifying period for this country.”

No word yet on whether Donald Trump will make Harvard pay their fair of taxes.