Professors Break Down the Causes and Consequences of Trump’s Victory

The college’s political science department hosted a virtual town hall titled “Perspectives on the 2024 Election” on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

The event was moderated by Associate Professor of Political Science and Department Chair Jonathan Obert and featured panelists from the political science and economics departments.

The professors spoke during the panel about their immediate reactions to the presidential election and discussed what political issues they felt drove Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Panelists discussed economic policy, inflation, and Harris’ failure to connect with middle-class and non-elite voters.

“The reaction to inflation … was maybe stronger than some of the polls were predicting,” said Professor Caroline Theoharides, associate professor of economics and department chair.

She said that though many economists have celebrated the Biden-Harris administration’s economic record, that message wasn’t connecting with many people in the face of inflation.

“There is also this phenomenon where [in] the past 12 months, wage growth has far surpassed inflation. There’s some work that has shown that when wage growth occurs, individuals think that that’s because of them [and] when inflation happens, that's something about bad policy,” Theoharides said. “What we're seeing is some of that backlash toward inflation.”

Harris’ presence as an incumbent also appears to have hindered her campaign in a country that blames her and President Biden for inflation and economic stagnancy, the panelists explained.

William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat said:  “Now, let’s be clear, in some ways, she did a remarkable job because of the headwinds that were opposed to her candidacy. She was an incumbent trying to present herself as an agent of change, and an important thing for us to remember is 65% of the American public, or more, depending on the poll that you look at, believe that this country is on the wrong track.”

The sentiment of incumbent parties as agents of economic failure appears to be reflected worldwide, according to the panelists.

“If I think about elections that have happened globally … we see that in most of those places, the incumbent party was voted out as a result of this inflation,” Theoharides said.

Panelists also discussed Harris’ failure to relate with middle-class voters as a result of her alignment with wealthier liberals and the growing distaste for the liberal elite in the nation.

“Every time that Kamala Harris appeared with Beyoncé, she lost votes,” Sarat said. “So I think that we should understand what happened [Nov. 5] in a very broad context: disillusionment with institutions, disengagement from those institutions, dissatisfaction with those institutions, and growing intolerance of elite culture.”

Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank ’55 Professor of International Relations Pavel Machala elaborated, saying that this shift has been brewing within the country for decades.

“This is a long period of time coming. The roots of this … populism all over the world, including the United States, has to be traced to the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism. It has to be traced to the wars the liberal elites have unleashed without permission from the American public,” Machala said.

Though a large part of the talk focused on the specifics of the election itself, it also served to provide comfort to the college, particularly to those who are apprehensive about what is to come for the country.

Professor Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of political science, who specializes in international democratic backsliding, ended his portion of the talk with a reminder to remain hopeful, especially for those who felt disheartened by Trump’s return to the White House.

“We are going to see a lot of our values being assaulted. In my field, we have seen moments like this. They can end up badly, but they also have experiences of moments in which countries do manage to come out of this and engage in some kind of resetting. Those cases do happen. They’re there. There's no reason to feel incredibly hopeless,” Corrales said.

Danielle Torres Werra ’25, who attended the talk to hear more about what other people at the college had to say about the election, left the event feeling hopeful.

“I wasn’t feeling super optimistic going into the webinar because at the moment, everything seemed a little hopeless,” she said. “The webinar was helpful in taking me out of the mindset of defeat …  It was really helpful hearing other people talk about the election and [while] it didn’t necessarily give me a sense of closure, I didn’t feel as though all was necessarily lost after attending.”