IDEAL at JHU hosted its first-ever Congress to Campus town hall Wednesday night in the Hodson Boardroom. The event brought together a bipartisan team of four former Congress members, Toby Roth (R-WI, 1979-1996), Barbara Kennelly (D-CT, 1981-1999), Nick Rahall (D-WV, 1977-2015) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL 1989-2013), over the span of three days.
The town hall was the first event kicking off IDEAL2016, a program to promote student involvement and education in this year’s election cycle.
After a brief round of introductions, the former congressmen began answering questions from the audience. A major point of debate revolved around the future of Congress, as well as the U.S. government as a whole, in light of growing and persistent partisanship.
Roth (R-WI) did not have a positive perspective regarding the future of America’s democratic political system. A strong supporter of Donald Trump, Roth emphasized the importance of change in the system.
“The system has changed. Times have changed. This government we have is not going to be around. It is not. We can’t go on like this. Why? Because no decisions are made,” Roth said.
Roth openly criticized the Obama administration for its lack of leadership skills in a troubling climate of change.
“Why isn’t Obama going to Chicago to show us what he can do? That’s his home town! That’s where he grew up! Why isn’t Hillary Clinton down there? Do you know why? No leadership. The times are not the same anymore,” he said. “What’s the new world going to look like? Yes, you have still got the Constitution, but you have only got nine people interpreting it. The Constitution only means something if people are standing behind it… We are on the road to serfdom.”
Twice, Roth pulled out Friedrick Hayek’s Road to Serfdom to illustrate what he thought the future held in store, which was the impending death of democracy in America.
“If I were you I’d be darned concerned,” Roth said. “We are on the road to serfdom. You go from liberty to socialism. You go from socialism to totalitarianism to dictatorship. That’s what you’re going to be dealing with.”
Rahall (D-WV) responded to Roth’s statements by arguing that regardless of who is elected to the presidency later this year, it is unrealistic to expect the large-scale change Roth hopes Trump will bring.
“Barack Obama was elected eight years ago on a platform of change,” Rahall said. “He came to office with a lot of people expecting good things. He made a serious effort in working across parties, and he knew he had to in order to effect that change. No president alone is going to be able to change. No one president can do anything by him or herself. Washington is big. There are too many stakeholders involved. Anything you change in Washington involves someone stepping on somebody toes. If Donald Trump gets elected, is he going to be able to change the status quo? Overnight? His supporters are so rabid and so determined to see that change they are going to be more disappointed in my opinion than Barack Obama’s supporters have ever been disappointed in Obama. That’s going to be an embarrassing time.”
Overall, Rahall expressed a more positive outlook on the future of America. He also acknowledged, however, the difficulty that comes along with calling for the necessary changes to the country’s political climate.
“We survived assassinations. We survived resignations... and we will survive this,” Rahall said. “Whatever happens in the next four months or four years. We want to get through this. But change is not going to happen overnight.”
Stearns also spoke to how change will come in the current system.
“The future is not optimistic yet,” Stearns said. “What I see today will not change until we reach a crisis. Until this country gets into an understanding of how much debt we have. What we see today is pretty much the status quo, and it’s going to continue at least for the next couple of years.”
Other subjects discussed in the town hall included the role of money in politics, as well as the place of independent political parties in the U.S. political arena.
The congressmen examined the rise and fall of Bernie Sanders, a former presidential candidate and independent, who eventually ran for office as a Democrat.
“Bernie Sanders was the only independent I served with in Congress,” Stearn said. “And independents do not have the resources to win. They might have personal resources, but they won’t have enough.”
In contrast, Barbara Kennelly (D-CT), a supporter of Hillary Clinton, expressed her apprehension regarding third parties.
“I am scared to death of the third party,” Kennelly said. “In part-time I teach and I have a group of students — two thirds of one of my classes was for Bernie. They loved Bernie. They would not consider voting for Trump and did not want to vote for Hillary... The Independents are going to be very influential. That does scare me.”
Sophomore Sean Jost spoke to the lively atmosphere of debate that pervaded the town hall.
“I found the chemistry and contrast between the congressmen interesting,” Jost wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “They were willing to both agree with each other and challenge each other on different points. They were very personable, and enthusiastic to talk about their careers. It was also very interesting hearing their opinions on the current state of affairs and the current election, from a perspective that isn’t as familiar with modern culture but is much more knowledgeable about the institutions of the past.”
Junior Jack Valenti, treasurer of IDEAL, also commented on the interaction between the congressmen and the atmosphere of debate.
“The event is doing the educating aspect of IDEAL, educating our student body about what US politics is like,” Volanti said. “Legitimate debate between students was not achieved. It is hard for that to happen when it’s a Q&A session and students aren’t willing to challenge a former congressperson because there’s a power dynamic there. But there was debate between the people on the panel.”
Senior Liam Haviv, founder and president of IDEAL, explained the purpose of the event and the role he hoped it would play in engaging the student body with the political process. “Congress to Campus was really unique because it brings together one Democrat and one Republican and stipulates that they must be together at all times,” Haviv said. “It also makes politics a little more human. They are former members [of Congress] so there are no filters. There is a lot of face time and personal interaction with them, and it’s a really special experience for students to get to know the life of a congressman.”
Haviv also explained how there will be future events by IDEAL to continue the dialogue of political transparency on campus.
“What’s great about this is we had the funding to do this over an extended period of time,” Haviv said. “We will be bringing, not the same four, but another set of congressmen will be returning for another couple day trip in the spring right after the inauguration.”
While the turnout for the town hall was low, Haviv noted that the small audience fostered a closer discussion.
“While they’ve seen now over a hundred students in the past five hours they’ve been here, at town hall, it was students they hadn’t seen, but it was only nineteen,” he explained. “It was still a very intimate and personal exchange, which was really good.”
Haviv also spoke to the enthusiasm showed by students and Congressmen alike at the town hall.
“The questions have been phenomenal. [The Congressmen] have all commented on how good the questions were from the Hopkins student body.”
