Maxwell School News and Commentary

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."