Hello again everyone, thank you for checking back in!
Day two began at 9:00 a.m. in the same way that day one did. All 350+ seminar attendees gathered in the conference room to listen to another carefully prepared lecture from more guest speakers. The speakers, in their own unique ways, all centered their lectures and discussions around the 2016 Presidential Election in a makeshift election postmortem. Julia Azari, the faculty director and leader of this seminar, led off with an hour-long lecture that touched on many things that I have learned in my political science courses at Arkansas Tech. She began by discussing how our political parties have very strong partisanship despite the fact that the political parties themselves are becoming weaker. The 2016 election proved this in many ways, but she gave us the example of party elite endorsements. At one time, the Republican Party elites, leaders, etc. threw their support behind Marco Rubio in hopes that the electorate would jump on board right behind them. Surprisingly, the electorate did not take these cues from the Republican Party, which lead to the rise (and victory) of an unconventional candidate such as Donald Trump. The nomination process on the Republican side was compromised at the hands of the voters given that they weren’t receptive to the movement of the party. Julia went on to explain the history of the party systems in the United States, discuss how split-ticket voting has declined, and the differences between primaries and caucuses. Something different that Julia brought to the table this morning was her opinion on how to encourage bipartisanship, which differed from Julie Winokur’s opinion from yesterday. She said that rather than engaging in conversation with those who have opposing viewpoints, you should engage with the people who share your same ideology in order to increase bipartisanship. She and Julie Winokur both think that their strategy’s to close the partisan gap will be successful because talking with those who have been through different experiences and lived through different situations will help you grow in your own beliefs. I think that both Julie and Julia are on to something important, and even though they differ on the strategy, bipartisanship is the ultimate goal.
The next part of the morning session was set aside for a panel discussion that was also dealing with the election. The panel consisted of Ruy Teixiera and John Hudak, while it was moderated by The Washington Bureau Chief at the LA Times, David Lauter. After David set the stage for discussion, Ruy began by laying out three demographic groups and explaining how Hillary Clinton did or did not appeal to them. The first group was minorities, which voted overwhelmingly Democratic, yet turned out in smaller numbers than they did in the 2008 and 2012 elections. The second group consisted of white, college-educated voters. These people turned out to vote for Hillary, but she fell roughly four points shorter than Trump in this category. The last group of voters was the white, under-educated working class. This is the group, in Ruy’s opinion, that put the last nail in Hillary’s politi
cal coffin so to speak. Hillary lost this group’s vote to Trump by a substantial amount, because she didn’t appeal to them as much as Trump did. Ruy went on to explain that Hillary’s campaign failed at securing enough votes from groups that have historically voted Democratic like the ones above, due to the fact that her central message got lost in the chaos of the election. John took over at this point and discussed the election results from a birds-eye view. He explained that Trump’s strategy worked so well because he was able to identify those who were displeased with Obama’s administration and target them. Trump appealed heavily (but not exclusively) to under-educated, low-skill, working-class, physically debilitated individuals. Trump recognized this quickly and spewed campaign promises in higher volumes to these voters than he can actually deliver (realistically) within the boundaries of presidential power. John also said that he doesn’t believe this is a new Republican wave, given the fact that Trump didn’t win the popular vote and Democrats actually gained a few seats in Congress. Around the time of closing remarks from the panelists, Trump’s presidency was cast in a very interesting light. Rather than describing Trump as our first unconventional president, we should recognize him as the first Independent president who seized power of one of the major parties to use as his vehicle.
Later in the afternoon, we were lucky enough to meet and talk with Alex Wong, Senator Tom Cotton’s Foreign Policy Adviser. 
He walked us through how he made it to where he is today, and it was honestly inspiring. He talked about how he majored in English in college and worked briefly for Newsweek after graduation. He got into law, interned, and briefly worked at the State Department, which led him down a path of connection-making where he would meet both Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton. Alex worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign team, later making it onto Tom Cotton’s staff as his Foreign Policy Adviser. Since I’ve also made connections as an intern in Washington, his story gave me hope that I can also become successful if I continue to work hard and stay focused. Alex then started taking questions that would guide his discussion with us. We talked about several aspects of Senator Cotton’s foreign policy agenda, covering everything from immigration policy to nuclear capability. Alex’s experiences were so interesting and he was refreshingly open and honest with us when talking about policy positions, which isn’t something you can say about most Washingtonians. With that being said, our meeting with Alex was my favorite segment of day two.
Once we were done meeting with Alex, we were able to freely walk about the city. In my small group, we walked by the Capitol, the Longworth House building, and the Democratic National Headquarters. Seeing so many important buildings all within minutes of each other never gets boring. Now that day two has come to a close, all I can say is bring it on day three!
