Maxwell School News and Commentary

"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.