Maxwell School News

Polarization will also likely exist long after President Donald Trump has left the stage, says Jeffrey Stonecash, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science. "A fundamental argument coming out of the Democratic Party is that things are not fair. You have a Republican Party making a moral argument that’s fundamentally different...that it’s not about ‘fairness,’ it’s about who’s more deserving," he writes.

"On automotive trade, I don’t think you’re going to see Biden making much of a move," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "There’s no way, especially with the labor support Biden has, he’s going to change that."

"The president has been asking Americans to deny what they see happening right in front of them. People are tired. They want to see some leadership and a coordinated national coronavirus response," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

Professor Emeritus David Bennett expresses concern that Americans view President Trump as a president who has "taken a pickax to the tent poles of democratic institutions." According to Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, one of the ways the President's strategy has been ineffective "is telling people not to be worried about something that is in fact worrisome."

According to Professor Emeritus William Banks, sending uniformed troops to the polls, including the [National] Guard, would be unwise. "The overriding point is that we don’t want the military involved in our civilian affairs. It just cuts against the grain of our history, our conditions, our values, our laws."

"The Trumpers have this idea that we‘re going to bring supply chains back home, and that is not going to happen, so where are we going?" Many Americans "don’t want to deal with a communist country that they don’t understand, with human rights positions they don’t approve of, to put it mildly," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. 

"In a threatening environment, Americans reward candidates and parties perceived to hold hawkish positions" and "punish candidates perceived to be dovish," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science.

"Most Americans do not necessarily view their problems with China as having much to do with their problems domestically," says Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology, for the  South China Morning Post.

Clearer messaging could mean that "on certain issues, U.S. policy might be tougher than it has been under Trump," says Professor of Political Science Brian Taylor. "But it also might mean that in certain areas, it's easier to see possible so-called 'win-win' solutions that just aren't on the table now because of how dysfunctional the process has become." 

If Biden wins the presidential election, "it's a return back to normalcy, the status quo, the way in which we knew politics to work across the border," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. 

"I didn’t take it seriously for a long time, but in the last six weeks, it’s become very concerning," says Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science. "This idea that the other side winning the election will produce a precipitous decline and the disintegration of institutions is completely at variance with American history."

"I think the main thing for Biden at this point is to simply show up and get through the event without a major breakdown of some kind," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. Most viewers are already locked in with their preferred candidate, he adds.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Stonecash says, we should be asking "about what values and ideas are driving polarization and which groups embrace some ideas rather than others," about understanding the election, for the New York Times.

In an increasingly polarized political climate, Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher says the "friends and neighbors" effect of politics hasn't been so effective in recent cycles, and that it's unclear how strongly that message can sway voters in 2020. 

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says that Trump could be looking to recover after being largely criticized for his performance in the first presidential debate last month, where the candidates traded insults and crosstalk clogged much of the conversation. "I think there's more pressure on (Trump) to remedy that in terms of the way he comes across in this event," he says.

Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher says that "Joe Biden is so old, that he may not finish out his term, and Donald Trump is also almost as old as Biden, but also has these health issues now that we don't know where they are going to go, and how severe they are going to be."

"On a scale of one to 10, I’d say my worry is about a nine," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "There are several plausible scenarios that could cause this election to go off the rails."