‘Democracy Dialogue’ Reflects GW’s Founding Vision

October 22, 2024

Authored by:

Greg Varner

The latest entry in the George Washington University's series of "Democracy Dialogues" focusing on the upcoming presidential election was a relaxed conversation with historian Jon Meacham and NBC political analyst Charles "Chuck" Todd, ATT '90-'94, Hon. '22. In a friendly back-and-forth on Oct. 20, the two speakers outlined some possible results of either a Trump or Harris victory at the polls. Their dialogue was the concluding event of GW's Alumni and Families Weekend.

After brief welcoming remarks to a full audience in Jack Morton Auditorium, Traci Scott, M.A. '96, a member of the Graduate School of Political Management's board of advisors who currently serves on the executive committee of the GW Alumni Association, introduced President Ellen M. Granberg, who described the present moment as a pivotal time for American democracy and linked the event to GW history.

"In 1821," Granberg said, "GW was founded with a clear purpose to educate citizens of a young republic at the seat of their nation's government, ensuring that the ideals and practices foundational to the American experiment and democracy would persevere for generations. Today, that founding vision still animates our university."

Like Scott, Toddwas selected during GW's bicentennial in 2021 as one of the university's Monumental Alumni. Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer, joined Todd in predicting a close election.

"Half the country is going to be unhappy" no matter what happens, Todd said to begin the discussion.

"Politics is a tough business," Meacham said, even for the most popular politicians. In terms of its political culture, Meacham added, America seems to be in the middle of a shift it has been undergoing since the days when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995, ushering in an era of more vicious political warfare between the two major parties.

"You can be unhappy and still be engaged in a constitutionally viable democratic process. You cannot be insurrectionist and do that," Meacham said. "Until 2020, if you were unhappy with our politics, you know what you did? You started working for the next election. You didn't storm the Capitol. You didn't call Georgia and ask for 12,000 votes. That's a difference of kind and not just of degree."

For several decades, Meacham said, American politics were shaped by a contest opposing the big-government progressivism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal with the small-government conservatism of Ronald Reagan, but those ideological differences seem to be fading.

In recent decades, Todd added, the nationalization of politics increasingly took hold as local newspapers folded.

President Ellen M. Granberg said GW "was founded with a clear purpose to educate citizens of a young republic at the seat of their nation's government." (Photo credit: Abby Greenawalt)

Pausing to joke with the audience, Meacham said, "You all chose to be here to listen to this massive dork-fest."

While Meacham and Todd agree that Joe Biden is apt to enjoy a glowing reputation in posterity-especially if Harris wins the presidency-one likely post-election scenario, no matter which candidate wins, is a divided Congress and continued polarization.

Should Trump win, Todd predicted, Europe will arm and the European Union would become a military power. He asked Meacham's opinion whether, faced with a Trump victory, Democrats would become illiberal.

"It's certainly a risk," Meacham said. "If Trump wins the election, and especially if he appears to do so without the appearance of legitimacy, it will be a deep moral test."

The United States, Todd and Meacham agreed, has been a functioning democracy only since the years of the modern civil rights movement in the 1960s, when Jim Crow regulations preventing Black people from voting were outlawed. Remembering the mission of the late congressional leader John Lewis and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to "redeem the soul" of the nation, Meacham said he refuses to cede the vernacular of redemption to people who want to exclude others from fully taking part in American democracy.

Meacham spoke admiringly of Liz Cheney, who lost her House seat after joining the Congressional January 6th Committee and speaking out against Donald Trump.

"Liz Cheney has done something that I believe should live in the annals of the republic even if we don't make it as a republic," Meacham said to a burst of applause from the audience.

In a brief Q & A session, an audience member asked about the mainstream media and its approach to covering Trump.

It's a mistake to deplatform Trump, Todd said, because citizens should see his behavior and hear his words. Todd likened journalists to politicians in light of the fact that someone is always displeased by their performance.

"We're not supposed to be popular or unpopular," Todd said. "In fact, we're just like politicians in that half the people should be mad at us on any given day. But hopefully they respect us at the end of the month."