Professors weigh in on the election

Photo courtesy of Lori Cox Han

John Compton. Photo by Caitie Guttry

Two political science professors agree: This election season has been full of the unexpected.

Lori Cox Han, an expert on women in politics, thinks a Hillary Clinton presidency will inspire very little institutional change.

“If she does win this election, while it will be very symbolic, nothing is going to change about the Constitution,” Han said.

Women only make up 20 percent of congressional seats, Han said, and there are still very few women involved in politics, even at state and national levels. She said the reason the public generally likes women politicians is because they tend to be seen as more trustworthy and honest. This is the opposite of the way the public sees Clinton.

“It’s interesting in terms of she is blazing a trail, but it is certainly not one a lot of other women may want to follow,” Han said.

Han was also surprised at the choice of Republican nominee, Donald Trump. She suggested that perhaps Trump was picked out of the other 17 Republican candidates in the primary because of his name recognition and his ability to be viewed as an outsider.

“No political scientist could have predicted Donald Trump,” Han said.

John Compton, an associate professor and political science expert, commented on how out of place a Trump nomination is for evangelical voters in the Republican Party, yet the polls say otherwise.

“It’s causing people to rethink the relationship between religion and conservative politics in this country,” Compton said.

Compton thought the outlandish actions of Trump throughout the primary elections would cost him the nomination. However, he thinks Trump was able to get away with more because the Republican Party is relatively small and leans more to the right, in comparison to the pool of voters as a whole. He finds that Trump’s actions are catching up to him now in the general election.

“The average general election voter is much more moderate than your average Republican-based voter,” Compton said.

Compton said he thinks Trump has picked up a large following from lower class Americans who feel left behind economically.

“The data suggests that (Trump supporters) tend to be whiter, older and less educated,” Compton said. “They see Trump as a champion for their cause.”

Han thinks Trump has done so well because despite having the majority in Congress, much of the Republican agenda has not been carried through in the past few years.

“I think a lot of people underestimated how angry voters were this time, particularly the base of the Republican Party,” Han said.

Han commented on the displacency of many college voters. Han suggested that perhaps students are becoming disinterested because the issues Trump and Clinton are focusing on don’t resonate with younger voters. Compton said it is still the responsibility of all Americans to vote.

“The old saying is ‘If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,’” Compton said. “You are making an impact on policy whether you vote or not.”

Han said there is a real difficulty here because the candidates are so polarizing.

“Clinton represents the problems within the political process whereas Donald Trump represents what’s wrong with our culture,” Han said. “We’ve come to expect so little in both of these candidates. If beating the other person is all you can feel good about, then we’re kind of rewriting the rules of what it means to be president in this country.”