Election 2008 and the Lehigh Community

This afternoon I attended a panel discussion here at Lehigh on the 2008 Presidential Election. The Panel included the presidents of the College Republicans and College Democrats, Rita Jones - The direction of the women's center, Ted Morgan- Professor of Political Science, the University Chaplain (as moderator), Seth Boran- a Rabbi and attorney, and Al Wurth- Professor of Political Science. Each panelist was asked an assortment of general questions before speaking including: What direction will we be going in with this election? What does the Lehigh community think about the election? What specific issues have affected the race positively or negatively?

Each of the panelists spoke for 5 minutes and then there was a general discussion.

Topics included the environment, the credentials of the candidates, the role of religion, religious voters, political strategy and campaign tactics, social/lifestyle issues, women and family policies, education, and the youth vote.

It was a great discussion but I would like to delve deeper into the conversations that the group had on a few of these issues:

1. The Credentials of the Candidates

Professor Wurth brought this topic up questioning why the credentials the public expects of the candidates are different than the credentials people use for those being hired for a job and that are stressed in an interview. There are different emphasis made on the credentials as well as different claims of expertise. It is interesting to note that people would rather vote for someone that they feel comfortable sitting down and having a beer with, instead of someone who has the skills and the credentials for running a successful government and positively representing America around the world. Why are so many Americans prone to vote for someone because they seem like "an average joe" instead of someone who is qualified and also shares the "values" of mr. joe? I think that this is something that really shocks me and many across the world. Why are we willing to settle for some average joe instead of someone great for our great nation?

2. Religion Religion Religion

We discussed many aspects of religion in the panel. Firstly the question of how white evangelical christians and Jewish voters will vote was brought up. Is there a shift in evangelical christians towards the Democratic party? Also what role will the overriding social issues of gay marriage and abortion have in this election in terms of religious voters? In terms of Jewish voters we discussed their geographical location in terms of electoral votes and whether or not they place a significant role in the election. The "Great Schlep" was brought up as well!

We also talked about the demonization of religion in this campaign season. This demonization comes from both parties. Firstly Rabbi Boran talked about how during the primary season how the fact that Mitt Romney (former candidate for the GOP ticket) is a Morman played into questioning whether or not he was fit to be a legitimate candidate for the White House. However most recently, how many news anchors, and others claim that Barack Obama is a Muslim and how this is some sort of indicator that he is not fit to run the White House either. We all know that Obama is NOT a Muslim, and has been a Christian his entire life. However, what if he was a Muslim? Why does his religion matter in questioning his credentials? This demonization shows people of those faiths that the American people in a way find their religions illegitimate or bad in some way. If we live in a country that supports freedom, then why are we putting down religion in such a horrific manner?

3. Negative campaigning

We discussed how negative campaigning is everywhere and asked why this is the case. Simply, negative campaigning and negative advertisements are what stick in most people's minds, proving to be more effective. Also, there is little fact checking that goes into many of the negative claims on the campaign trail and therefore no one is held accountable. Many people use the internet as a source of information, but what information is true and what information is false? The Internet is not only empowering, but dangerous in terms of anonyminity. Also, people only look up the information that supports their own opinions and ideologies. Negative campaigning is nothing new, and most likely won't go away.

4. Black or Arab?

The last point that we made in the discussion was in regards to many of the angry claims that supporters of McCain have been making at rallies lately that have gained lots of media attention. There was one woman who said that she didn't support or trust Obama because he was an Arab. The panel suggested that she may or may not have been making a reference to Obama's race. The panel said that it may be more "socially acceptable" to question whether or not someone is an Arab and qualified rather than if someone is Black and qualified especially because of 9/11, and the wars in the middle east. Do we not want to talk about this issue because we are uncomfortable? The panel says yes. Also, will the current economic situation trump the issues of race and religion in terms of the candidates?

This is a lot to think about, but if you have any comments, please share!