Panel outlines domestic socioeconomic problems

The Pace Center coordinator for civic engagement learning and moderator of the discussion, Andrew Seligsohn, opened the lecture by expressing his surprise at the duration of the Democratic primary. “When, back in January, we chose the date for this program ... we thought surely by now the nominees for both parties would be chosen,” he said.

Before an audience of roughly 75 students, faculty and community members, the three agreed that the current political moment is one of incredible importance, with Glaude and Williams addressing some of the more pessimistic signs for the future, while Urbinati presented a more optimistic view, considering the election from a European perspective.

Williams began by outlining the problems facing the country that make this election so vital.

“My first concern about what’s missing,” Williams said, “is the degradation of American life ... and discourse.”

She included economic concerns like poverty, the falling value of the dollar, marketplace integrity and the high levels of criminalization in American society. Williams complained that the current discourse revolved around the reliance on particular narratives that smooth the couture of stories and avoid the substantive issues.

Glaude agreed with Williams, expanding upon many of her statements and framing her ideas about declining conditions in the United States. In particular, Glaude highlighted the statistics facing criminal justice and public education systems.

For example, he noted that 2.3 million Americans are in prison, more than any other nation, and that in 17 cities in the United States, less than 50 percent of public school students graduate from high school.

“Our public education system has become one of the major ways that we reproduce inequality,” Glaude said.

He noted that he was pessimistic about any possible change because he expected the election to instead focus on race.

Urbinati, who is a visiting fellow at the University Center for Human Values and professor of political science at Columbia University, offered an international perspective.

She noted that in news outside the United States “there is one common theme ... the relevance of these elections, the crucial importance for the world whoever from the Democratic Party wins the nomination.”

Urbinati explained that Europe’s stance stems both from the desire to see a U.S. administration more willing to cooperate, as well as the election’s ability to bring about discussion of national politics.

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She added that this primary has demonstrated “a kind of governizing politics that we miss so much in Europe.”

The speakers each spoke for 10 to 15 minutes before opening up the floor to questions that were not addressed specifically to any of them.

“I thought it was a really productive lecture about the issues that need to discussed in this election,” Ashley Brisco ’11 said. “I enjoyed Professor Urbinati’s world view. We don’t get to see a lot of what the rest of the world thinks about the election.”

Grant Brooke, a student at the Princeton Theological Seminary, said, “I really enjoyed Dr. Glaude’s comments on the urgency of this race; I think that’s often lost.”

The lecture was cosponsored by the Pace Center and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and was a companion lecture to “Election 2008: Where Do Things Go from Here? Conservative Perspectives” held in February.