On Dec. 2, Hamilton graduates Mike Dubke ’92, and Marc Elias ’90, took part in a Facebook Live chat. Dubke, the former Communications Director of the Trump White House and veteran communications operative, and Elias, a general counselor for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and current partner at the Perkins Coie law, discussed the country’s increasing political divide.
Dubke and Elias’ conversation was moderated by journalist and independent communications consultant Jackie Judd P ’14.
Judd has previously worked as a Special Correspondent for
PBS NewsHour
and as an
ABC News
correspondent for World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America. She has won multiple awards, including a national Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow award.
This discussion was held as part of Hamilton’s 1812 Leadership Circle Weekend.
The 1812 Leadership Circle Weekend is a yearly celebration for donors of a certain level; membership in the Leadership Circle beings with annual gift of at least $2,500, although young alumni qualify with lesser donations: $500 or more for alumni 1–4 years after graduation, $1,000 for alumni 5–9 years after graduation, and $1,500 for alumni 10–14 years after graduation.
The discussion focused largely on political polarization. Dubke, who has previously assisted Congressman Chris Collins, as well as Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, cited George Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign as a source of contemporary polarization.
In this election, “the Republican party made a strategic decision to go after the base and get those individuals who more identified with Republicanism or conservative ideas to turn out and vote, rather than trying to persuade the middle,” Dubke said.
“It was much more efficient to turn out those who might be like you than spend money trying to persuade somebody.”
In other words, according to Dubke, Bush’s reelection campaign focused on winning over the right as opposed to more moderate voters, which created a more rigid divide along the political spectrum. Much of this, Dubke said, is due to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
This act brought attention to the efficiency of campaigning for a group likely to vote for a certain candidate rather than spending more money to persuade another constituency.
Both participants agreed that this partisan divide has been accumulating for more than a decade. Elias cited Republicans as the source of such polarization; specifically, Elias focused on Newt Gingrich’s 1994
Contract with America
. He said that this was a pivotal moment for the political tensions currently present in the country. He then went on to claim that today’s political divide is not so much a matter of policies, such as tax cuts, but of people’s personal identities.
With this in mind, he looked at Charlottesville, saying, “It has become okay in 2016 and 2017 for a politician to say ‘there were good whites marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville’ or to retweet a fringe-racist video from the U.K., and for a political party to defend all that,” Elias said, referring to President Trump’s recent statements and tweets.
“What you have is that divisions in politics are not whether the tax cuts should go here or there, but more to people’s sense of who they are.”
“You could be in favor of net neutrality, lower taxes, free internet, whatever, but if you don’t believe that DREAMers should stay, you don’t believe that there is such a thing as global warming, and you’re not willing to acknowledge that someone who calls themselves a Neo-Nazi and marches with torches is not a good person, there is no entry point for that person to consider your candidacy.”
“The reverse is also true.”
During the conversation, Dubke and Elias both answered questions from a live audience, touching on the role of media in today’s political climate, particularly referring to the effect of President Trump’s usage of Twitter rather than traditional press releases.
Dubke and Elias agreed that today’s exponentially growing media platforms contribute to this political divide, especially with President Trump’s habit of taking to Twitter for communication rather than traditional forms of press.
They see this major use of Twitter and Facebook as being considerably bad for the country, as people no longer read traditional publications like
The New York Times
, but wait to see a certain article appear on their newsfeed.
Having such prominent figures with contrasting ideologies come to common conclusions on certain issues, and discuss any disagreements in a respectful and effective way, is intended to reduce political divisions.
While this most recent event took place in New York City, it was streamed live on the Hamilton College Facebook page; as of writing, the recorded video had 2,712 views.
