Campbell Institute News

"What's happening, at least in my research, is that young people have been organizing for a great deal of time. And what they've been saying is that, you know, enough is enough," says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

"This is bigger than a partisan fight," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science. "This is really about the nature of what is the presidency and what can it be used for."

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says the whistle-blower revelations aren’t really telling people anything they didn’t already know about President Trump. "How many times,” Reeher says, "can you regenerate the outrage?"

"One of the risks for Democrats in 2020— specially at the presidential level—is that the impeachment process will suck up all the oxygen that otherwise might have been available to make the affirmative case for election," says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher.

"It’s damning by any account just for the mere fact that he asked a foreign leader to investigate private citizens for potential personal political gain is egregious," says Christopher Faricy, associate professor of political science. "The question, what else is out there that we are not aware of, either with the Ukranian President or even other countries and leaders."

"The more moderate Democrats are recalculating, thinking they have to get on board with this [President Trump's impeachment] or face primaries" from left-leaning insurgents, says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher. "The facts have also changed" since the Russia investigation, he adds.

"Regarding [Elizabeth] Warren’s use of [Frances] Perkins in her speech tonight: I just want to note that this [Perkins' opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education verdict] is something Perkins said near the end of her life, was buried in an extremely long academic oral history interview, and isn’t really public knowledge," says Steven White, assistant professor of political science.

Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, says the fact that Trump has turned immigration into such a partisan issue has likely increased support for immigrants among many Americans. "On the whole, people’s attitudes have become more supportive of immigration," she says.

"By labeling every single moment of self-doubt expressed by women, primarily those of color, as impostor syndrome, we flatten the complexities and pervasiveness of White Supremacy and patriarchy," writes Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

“The faculty promoted are nationally recognized scholars, outstanding teachers, and engaged in making their work accessible to broader audiences in an effort to shape future research, and dialogue and practice,” said David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School.

"A lot of communities now are very committed to dealing with issues of racism, but the fact is their own history is problematic," says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. "They’re beginning to confront their own racism, and their own complicity in the racism of the past."

"Obama can say things that will be heard differently from the Democratic candidates for president," says Professor Grant Reeher. "He has the role of former president and that de facto gives you a statesmanlike role. And he fills that role in the way he expresses himself."

In the wake of President Trump's recent tweets about four Democratic congresswomen of color, Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science, assesses that coded racial language began to be used as a political strategy under President Richard Nixon.

"We're seeing some really, really inventive entrepreneurs with grand visions that are basically just getting started to move towards that same pattern that we saw for commercial aviation that made traveling around the globe a relatively easy proposition," says Sean O'Keefe, University Professor and former NASA administrator.

Former NASA Administrator and University Professor Sean O'Keefe spoke with several media outlets about the July 20, 1969, landing of Apollo 11 on the moon and the possibility of future space exploration. "It is a common aspirational goal as big as what we saw in the 1960s," O’Keefe told the Gazette. "Could we see convergence around a common goal that could benight this era? Absolutely." 

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says that Governor Cuomo's signing of new legislation that allows Congressional committees to acquire President Trump's New York tax filings "represents a new escalation in the level of political polarization that we're seeing."