Thank you for this important piece. I agree it is very important to put the issue of academic freedom in a global context and am glad you drew attention to these issues. I hope you don’t mind my pointing out though that it seems to slightly idealize the situation in the US on matters related to Palestine even before this dangerous bill. Two cases in point from Indiana are that of Prof. Abdelkadir Sinno, who was suspended for organizing a meeting relating to Palestine at Indiana U. Bloomington and Samia Halaby, an IUB alumni and former professor whose art exhibition was cancelled due to its Palestinian content. I have written about this here (https://medium.com/discourse/the-case-for-speaking-out-on-palestine-2243b8e2b56b) and will also share more links below. These examples indicate to me that Indiana like many US states approached the level of the non-US countries you mentioned in your essay, without or without the bill. Of course the bill makes the situation much worse and generalizes the problem beyond suppression of Palestine.

I agree on all other points, especially regarding the reasons you give why generally educated people do not lean Republican.

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2024/01/iu-political-science-professor-sinno-suspended-psc-administration-palestine

https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2024/01/16/letter-to-indiana-university-regarding-academic-freedom-violations-against-professor-abdelkader-sinno-and-artist-samia-halaby