In the weeks preceding and days following the election, reporters have sought the perspectives of several Hamilton professors on topics ranging from environmental ballot initiatives to the Democratic Socialists of America party to the kind of legislative progress that can be expected in the next two years.
Professor of Government and Director of Environmental Studies Peter Cannavò was quoted in a Bloomberg article titled ‘Green Wave’ of Policy Fails to Crest on Election Day published on Nov. 7. He observed that, “Unless it’s really close to home and really concrete, environmental issues seem abstract.” He noted that climate change has yet to materialize as a personal issue for voters, despite a gloomy outlook in a recent U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “The opponents were able to present any effort to address these problems as too expensive,” Cannavò concluded.
When asked by Deutsche Welle to give a preview of what to expect until the 2020 election, James S. Sherman Professor of Government Philip Klinkner offered this, “Take everything you have seen over the last two years and multiply it times a hundred.” In the post-election broadcast and article titled Post-midterm outlook in US: ‘It’s going to be crazy for the next 2 years,’ Klinkner continued, “If the legislative progress was slow with Republicans in control, it likely will come to a grinding halt with the incoming split Congress. You’ll see gridlock. Nobody has total control.”
"[Trump] clearly sees the Mueller investigation as a mortal threat to his presidency, maybe even a real criminal threat to himself and he wants to shut it down. And he will use every possible means he has at his disposal to do that. So it's going to be crazy for the next two years.” He concluded by noting that, “Trumpism is really largely an appeal to some sort of white nationalist sentiments in the American electorate.” Deutsche Welle is Germany’s publicly funded international broadcaster.
In As US midterms approach, 'socialism' no longer a dirty word, Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, pointed to the financial crisis of 2008 rather than the rise of Bernie Sanders on the national political scene as the beginning of the explosive growth of the Democratic Socialists of America. “There would have been no Bernie Sanders campaign without Occupy,” says Isserman. “Even though Occupy disappeared quickly, its issues, like income inequality, and its slogans – ‘the 1 percent versus the 99 percent’ – really did change the conversation politically.”
The article was published by France24, a state-owned international news and current affairs television network based in Paris.
Socialists in the House: A 100-Year History from Victor Berger to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, written by Isserman and published by In These Times on Nov. 8, provided a history of American socialists’ “long and proud tradition in elected office” leading up to the midterm election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. “Socialists in Congress are a rare but not unknown phenomenon in American political history,” he wrote.
According to its website, In These Times, an independent, nonprofit magazine, is dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice, informing movements for a more humane world, and providing an accessible forum for debate about the policies that shape our future.
