Spenser Rapone, a former West Point graduate who once infamously displayed “Communism will win” on his military uniform, is now pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. This troubling turn of events is a stark reminder of how far-left ideology has infiltrated academia, particularly at our most esteemed institutions.
Rapone, who wore a Che Guevara shirt beneath his official West Point uniform and advocated online for socialist revolution, represents the very antithesis of what the United States military stands for—duty, honor, and country. After leaving the Army under an “other-than-honorable” discharge for conduct unbecoming of an officer, as Campus Reform reported, Rapone should have faded into obscurity. Instead, he’s been embraced by the academic elite, where his far-left, anti-American views are given a platform and legitimacy.
The fact that UT Austin admitted him into a highly competitive Ph.D. program—where he’s studying “decolonization” and “revolution”—reveals the depths of academia’s leftist rot. Rapone’s biography highlights his admiration for anti-colonial nationalist movements and Ba’thist ideology, a disturbing connection to political regimes that are historically authoritarian and oppressive. Despite his blatant disdain for the U.S. military and our nation’s founding principles, he’s now teaching classes on topics like the Black Power Movement and the history of eugenics—spreading his dangerous, Marxist views to impressionable students.
What’s even more alarming is that this isn’t an isolated case. Rapone is a product of our broken education system. Leftist professors churn out activists who, like Rapone, despise America and everything it stands for. The real concern is what happens next: after completing his Ph.D., Rapone will likely enter academia full-time, further poisoning young minds with his radical, anti-American ideology. It’s time we take a serious look at how academia is breeding activists, not scholars, and ensure our institutions reflect true American values.
