On Oct.17, the Langevin Symposium held its second event of 2023 in Edwards Auditorium, titled “Polarization and Politics in America: Finding the Center.”
The event was moderated by former U.S. Representative Jim Langevin, who represented Rhode Island’s second congressional district in Washington for over twenty years, and is hosted by the University of Rhode Island College of Arts and Sciences and its department of political science.
Featured speakers in the discussion included Reince Priebus, former White House Chief of Staff for Donald Trump, as well as former chair of the Republican National Committee. Also involved was Steve Israel, former U.S. congressman from New York and the current director of Cornell University’s institute of politics and global affairs.
Many topics were covered during the night’s discussion, with many points being made considering Israel and Priebus’s representation of opposite sides of the aisle, which Israel addressed early on in the symposium.
“You’re going to see something different,” Israel said. “A stalwart Republican who chaired the Republican National Committee, a stalwart Democrat who chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign, actually agreeing on things or disagreeing respectfully, which this country needs so much more of.”
A statement that immediately stood out was made by Preibus regarding why polarization continues to widen in political parties in the US — where there is conflict, there is potential profit to be made.
“Unity is a loser, and division is pure profit,” Priebus said. “There is no money in unity. There are no book sales in unity. There are no rates on cable networks in unity… it is the loser. Division is a winner.”
Israel spoke about the division we have in today’s political climate, and that issues arising from it, such as the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, are becoming more threatening to the country, and to our democracy as a whole.
“I do not fear a collapse via a foreign attack,” said Israel, “but I do fear a collapse of the country via the divisions that we have now.”
The former congressman went on to mention the country’s electorate issue, with the political party in the White House and on Capitol Hill having flipped numerous times back and forth over the past twenty years.
“This is an electorate that is desperately searching for solutions,” said Israel. “The unprecedented array of economic challenges, cultural challenges, the challenges of social media, this is the electorate that continues to shift dramatically from one to the other because it’s not sure which deal is best for them.”
Since the conversation took place on a college campus, Priebus had some words of advice for the sizable delegation of students in the audience: get involved. He said this because many college students actually like the issues and policies that are talked about frequently, but don’t like the politics of it.
“You’ve got to get involved because if you’re not involved then we’re just gonna let this whole thing keep going,” Priebus said.
Towards the end of the night, the conversation addressed the upcoming 2024 presidential election. An interesting point Israel made on the voting process itself, was how in a process that involves the input of over 150 million people who cast votes every four years, it will come down to roughly 100,000 people in 8 “battleground” states that historically flip between red and blue to decide who gets to occupy the Oval Office. How the two parties go after these 100,000 people, according to Priebus, relies heavily on consumer data points on virtually everything about a person’s lifestyle, even things you may not even think can relate to who you decide to vote for.
“I would know what kind of car you drive, how many kids you have, the ages of your kids, the color of your truck, and what’s crazy is that all that data will tell me the propensity you have to support our candidate,” Priebus said. “When we send you an absentee ballot, I’ll know exactly whose door to knock on and who’s door not to knock on.”
Overall, the event was a large success, with roughly 300 people in attendance, with another 300 watching via a livestream, for the 2nd event of the Langevin Symposium. If this years program is any indication, the URI community can expect the next event to occur sometime in early spring of 2024.