With the 2008 presidential election quickly approaching, Friends of New Brunswick Free Public Library hosted a public seminar on the major political parties featuring Gerald Pomper, member of the University Board of Governors.
The lecture, part of the “Libraries Brown Bag Luncheon Series,” focused on the presidential candidates, and the differences in the underlying issues that are of the primary concern during this election.
Pomper, a former professor of political science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, has both written and edited 19 books on subjects such as elections in America, voter’s choice and American democracy.
Pomper said the 2008 presidential election holds in history a unique position not because of race or sex — which he called false issues — but because of a vast interest found within the voters that are statistically 25 and under,
“If [Sen. Barack] Obama wins this election, [young voters] will be a main reason,” Pomper said.
He said in the past, voters who are 25 and under have been the group that has had the lowest amount of members to come out and vote, a statistic caused mainly from a lack of knowledge about the political race.
Younger people are also less likely to have established a sense of community relevant to homeowners and older adults that had more than likely not been established yet in a younger person, Pomper said.
But the explosion of interest in this year’s presidential campaign from a set of statistical non-voters has everyone in politics raising an eyebrow. The new trend of interest event inspired an article that appeared in Time magazine, titled “The Year of the Youth Vote.”
Pomper said the increase might be caused by the use of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Their ability to provide relevant campaign information and accompany these statistics with virtual communities and groups used for expressing and debating personal political choices enables these potential voters to better prepare themselves for the oncoming election.
For Kortni Lane, a recent graduate of Rutgers College, voting in the presidential election has never been a top priority, but this November she said she has every intention of casting her ballot.
“Seeing that my peers are so passionate about their political ideas has really inspired me to get out and make my own voice heard,” she said. “I can voice my opinion, but it won’t count until I actually vote for what I believe in.”
Wilhelmina Littel, a Cook College senior, said she feels adequately prepared to make an educated vote on Nov. 4 after listening to Pomper’s explanations of political dynamics.
“I have heard issues discussed on the news and on the Internet, but after I heard their reasoning explained and why they’re so important, I’m more confidant about my vote,” Littel said.
Pomper also spoke about differences and political strategies that belong to each political party and where each candidate fits into their respective political distinctions.
When American citizens are asked their opinions on the most pressing issue facing Washington today, Pomper said, more than half will answer with the issue of the current state of the nation’s economy.
Pomper discussed the economic growth of the nation since World War II into the recorded percentages of salary increases under both Democratic and Republican leadership.
The periods with mainly Democratic politicians in leadership positions collectively displayed a 2.6 percent increase in salary for the bottom 20 percent of the nation’s earners and a 2.1 percent increase in the top 20 percent, Pomper said.
This is a fairly equal amount of increase between two vastly different demographics, he said.
Under the periods of Republican rule, the bottom 20 percent of American earners demonstrated a .43 percent increase in salary, and the top 20 percent showed a gain that is five times as much as the gain experienced by the poorest Americans — a 1.9 percent increase, Pomper said.
Pomper also spoke about the importance of foreign policy and the difference between defense strategies generally used between the two parties.
“We don’t know what the threats are going to be [against America],” Pomper said. “It might be a terrorist attack on America … or Russia could invade China.”
The ambivalence of the future shows advantages and disadvantages for the strategies of each party, Pomper said.
He said there are differences between the avenues that foreign policy positions generally take with each political party.
The Republican Party is generally concerned with unilateral, assertive terms that are mainly concerned with avenues useful to homeland security and threats that involve military strategies, Pomper said.
The Democrats, on the other hand, tend to focus on multilateral issues outside of the United States, discussing subjects such as diplomacy and relations between different countries, he said.
The imminent selection of new justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, Pomper said, is an issue uniquely important to this election.
“The supreme court is currently a one-man operation,” he said, referring to the current cabinet of Supreme Court justices including four essentially conservative justices and four liberal justices, leaving one justice as the sole decision maker in most scenarios.
With two or more justices being replaced after this presidential election, Pomper said each candidate’s prospective choices for replacements is an issue that needs careful consideration.
One of the most relevant topics among most political debates remains to be those of cultural issues, Pomper said. He gave examples such as gay rights, abortion, and the diversity of opinions and policies regarding these topics from state to state.
“One of the advantages of federalism is that you can have different policies on these things in different [states],” Pomper said.
The role of each political candidate expressing both traditional ideals — including motherhood, patriotism and small town virtues — along with cosmopolitan ideals such as intellect, outreach and the emphasis on community work rather than individual work are important to candidates in such a diverse population, Pomper said.
He said all ideals must be suitably targeted by the candidate to appeal to the specific values and virtues that are relevant within different places in the United States when it comes to these sensitive cultural concerns.
2008 presidential election may rest on young vote
Former U. professor Gerald Pomper spoke yesterday at the New Brunswick Public Library about the cand
Published: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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