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 COVID pandemic is a great example of a current event that is changing every aspect of society—from how families are organized to how we deliver education and the structure of work,” says Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs Colleen Heflin.

"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.