tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-mary-washington-3973/articlesThe University of Mary Washington2024-03-06T02:04:33Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250472024-03-06T02:04:33Z2024-03-06T02:04:33ZAfter Super Tuesday, exhausted Americans face 8 more months of presidential campaigning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579935/original/file-20240305-28-wuuee4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1072%2C26%2C3342%2C2846&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Campaign volunteers set up signs encouraging people to vote.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2024Alabama/e953d3d110334cfea6a90b336231b74d/photo">AP Photo/Vasha Hunt</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Now that Super Tuesday is over and the <a href="https://apnews.com/live/super-tuesday-updates-results">Democratic and Republican nominees are all but officially chosen</a>, as everyone expected, voters can turn the page to the general election. </p>
<p>But they’re not excited about it, and they haven’t been for months.</p>
<p>A September 2023 Monmouth University poll showed <a href="https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_100223/">no more than 40% of Americans said they were “enthusiastic”</a> for either Biden or Trump to run again. That same month, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/">Pew Research Center</a> found that 65% of Americans were exhausted with the current state of American politics. In February 2024, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/us/politics/trump-resistance-democrats-voters.html">The New York Times</a> said Democrats in particular were burned out by the seemingly endless avalanche of political crises.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/after-super-tuesday-exhausted-americans-face-8-more-months-of-presidential-campaigning-225047&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">narrated by Noa</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>It is not surprising that a rematch of the 2020 election is failing to inspire excitement in the American people. Yet, as a political scientist who studies <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/citizens-of-the-world-9780197599389">citizen engagement</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/feeling-their-pain-9780197696903">the public’s feelings</a> toward the candidates, I find these trends disturbing. It’s not just polarization that’s driving voters’ malaise – it’s something else, which carries a stark warning for the health of American democracy.</p>
<h2>There is another divide in politics</h2>
<p>Most discussions of the current state of the American electorate have understandably focused on political polarization. Democrats and Republicans often <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/U/bo27527354.html">express disdain for each other</a>, even when they don’t actually disagree on specific policies for the nation to pursue. </p>
<p>Some of this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/715072">disdain is rooted in identity</a>. For example, people who hold unfavorable attitudes toward African Americans, feminists and other groups associated with the Democratic Party tend to identify more strongly with the Republican Party. People with unfavorable attitudes toward stereotypically Republican groups such as evangelicals and gun owners tend to be stronger Democrats.</p>
<p>From this perspective, Democrats and Republicans are pack animals motivated to protect their group and their group’s interests.</p>
<p>Often overlooked, however, is how the vitriol of modern American politics fuels what political scientists Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan call “<a href="https://www.otherdividebook.com/">The Other Divide</a>.” This is the divide between people who engage in politics and those who don’t.</p>
<p>In short, a significant number of Americans don’t talk about politics, whether because they are not interested in politics or are turned off by the negativity. It’s a gradual trend dating back to the 1980s and 1990s that has continued for decades now. This weakens the fabric of democracy, because the only voices that are heard online and in the media are from those who are most willing to speak up. They tend to be the most dissonant and extreme views.</p>
<p>The public discussion about the country’s past, present and future therefore leaves out a wide range of people’s voices. What they might say is hard to know, specifically because they don’t engage in political discussions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An adult stands with a child at a voting booth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579916/original/file-20240305-26-s5z3dj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young people – those of voting age at least – are less likely to see voting as important.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2024/1ee5523ecf7441eca7c37e430511fdb0/photo">AP Photo/Michael Dwyer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Young voter disengagement</h2>
<p>Especially troubling to me is the political disillusionment expressed by young people, who are the most likely group in the country to avoid identifying themselves <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/01/15/voters-declare-independence-political-parties">as members of one party or the other</a>. People who identify themselves as independents – especially if they don’t lean toward one party or the other – are also likely to lack interest in voting.</p>
<p>Having come of age during an era of high polarization, younger people are less likely to idealize politics and the right to vote. In prior research, my colleagues and I found that younger people worldwide were just as interested in politics as older citizens but were <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/citizens-of-the-world-9780197599389?cc=us&lang=en&">less likely to view voting as a civic duty</a>. Protesting or joining an organization offers social benefits to young people – an opportunity to feel like they are part of something bigger. Voting, by contrast, is perceived as a more solitary act. </p>
<p>If younger American voters aren’t excited about the choices on the ballot, they may be more likely not to vote at all.</p>
<p>In a recent survey I conducted in collaboration with <a href="https://ignitenational.org/gen-z-research">IGNITE National</a>, an organization seeking to bolster young women’s engagement in the political process, we asked Gen Z Americans, adults born after 1996, what drove their disillusionment with American politics. Consistently, Gen Z respondents noted that the candidates appearing on the ballot <a href="https://8226836.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/8226836/Gen%20Z%20Voting%20%26%20Political%20Engagement%20Report%202023.pdf">did not look like them</a>, contributing to their feeling of detachment from the political process. </p>
<p>Barack Obama’s race made 2008 a historic election. Hillary Clinton’s gender made 2016 a historic contest as well. By contrast, 2024 features the <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/3744771-here-are-the-oldest-us-presidents-to-ever-hold-office/">two oldest white men</a> to ever seek the presidency, vying for second terms in office.</p>
<p><iframe id="N7JHB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/N7JHB/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Burnout’s effects on democracy</h2>
<p>Americans have many demands on their time. Between work, family and other activities, many struggle to watch or read the news, fact check what they see on social media or engage in productive political discussions. As a result, most of the American public <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300072754/what-americans-know-about-politics-and-why-it-matters/">is largely unaware of key aspects of important issues</a>, and does not pay attention to the parties’ stances on those issues. </p>
<p>This lack of engagement is dangerous for democracy. Voters who cannot evaluate the merits of contrasting policy positions, or who cannot accurately assign blame and give credit for the state of the American economy, will ultimately fall back on cheap cues such as partisanship to make their choices. </p>
<p>Or they may abstain from politics altogether.</p>
<p>The campaign season offers an opportunity for voters who may be open to persuasion to engage in the political process for a short period of time, become sufficiently informed and make their voices heard. Though there are flaws in the many processes of political campaigning, media coverage and community involvement, the bottom line is simple: Deliberative democracy requires an American public that is willing to deliberate. </p>
<p>If Americans are too burned out to engage enthusiastically and provide feedback to political leaders, then there is little hope that any government could truly reflect the will of the people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s not just polarization that’s driving voters’ malaise − it’s something else, which carries a stark warning for the health of American democracy.Jared McDonald, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210942024-01-16T17:39:58Z2024-01-16T17:39:58ZIowa was different this time – even if the outcome was as predicted<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569568/original/file-20240116-29-ryzaij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Donald Trump speaks in Des Moines, Iowa, shortly after his victory in the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 15, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-president-donald-trump-speaks-at-his-caucus-night-news-photo/1936448792?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Trounced, crushed, routed, dominated: Pick your verb to describe what former President Donald Trump did to his GOP rivals in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/15/us/elections/results-iowa-caucus.html">Jan. 15, 2024 Iowa caucus</a>. The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timothy-Hagle">two scholars</a> to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WzUF8jAAAAAJ&hl=en">analyze the results</a>, in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley a close third.</em></p>
<h2>This year’s unique features</h2>
<p><strong>Timothy Hagle, University of Iowa</strong></p>
<p>Each installment of the Iowa caucuses has unusual or particularly interesting aspects. The 2024 caucuses were no exception. Because the Democrats have an incumbent in the White House, there was little activity on their side of the aisle. Especially so because the Democratic National Committee <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/iowa-democrats-new-caucus-process-work/story?id=106133768">removed Iowa from its first-in-the-nation position</a>. As a result, Iowa Democrats <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/iowa-democrats-new-caucus-process-work/story?id=106133768">abandoned the traditional caucuses</a> in favor of a mail-in procedure.</p>
<p>Although the Republican caucus race was technically open, those challenging former President Donald Trump faced an uphill battle. He ran <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/us/politics/iowa-caucus-state-politics.html">as if he were an incumbent</a>. In addition, a “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/dangerous-cold-snap-blankets-iowa-ahead-of-caucuses-/7439184.html">rally-round-the-chief</a>” effect meant that his several <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/did-donald-trumps-indictments-boost-his-poll-numbers-1832694">indictments didn’t damage his standing</a> in the polls, and sometimes improved it. </p>
<p>Speaking of polls, another interesting aspect of this caucus season was how static the polls seemed to be. <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/caucus/2024/01/13/iowa-poll-nikki-haley-leads-ron-desantis-ahead-of-republican-caucus-night-big-lead-for-donald-trump/72216523007/">Trump maintained a large lead</a> for the bulk of the period. DeSantis was in second and Haley in third for most of the campaign, after she surged following the first two debates. There was some movement among the other candidates, but mostly in the single-digits range.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ron DeSantis wears a navy suit and bends down to shake people's hands as he walks on a stage. He stands in front of two large American flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569570/original/file-20240116-15-xk1ief.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis arrives at a watch party during the Iowa Caucus in West Des Moines on Jan. 15, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/florida-governor-and-republican-presidential-hopeful-ron-news-photo/1928402087?adppopup=true">Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The weather was obviously a big factor for this caucus cycle. Two large snowstorms in the week before the caucuses caused <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-winter-weather-caucus-campaign-events-canceled-a4fd8a5550a05166534f7b330560cbc9">campaign events to be postponed, canceled or moved online</a>. Candidates were trying to make their closing arguments; this disruption likely hurt their plans and disappointed voters still looking to make a final decision on whom to support. In addition, the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/15/weather/weather-iowa-caucuses-cold-dg/index.html">extreme cold and severe wind chills on caucus night</a> may have helped <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/16/iowa-caucus-turnout/">drive turnout to lower numbers</a> than any year since 2004.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nikki Haley wears a pink blazer and speaks into a microphone, as she stands in front of a group of people sitting at tables watching her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569573/original/file-20240116-15-gctpab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign stop at a restaurant on Jan. 15, 2024, in Pella, Iowa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-former-u-n-ambassador-news-photo/1935522708?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A diss to Iowa voters</h2>
<p><strong>Stephen J. Farnsworth, University of Mary Washington</strong></p>
<p>A key claim that Iowa caucus defenders make is that voters there are particularly effective at evaluating candidates by running them through a gauntlet of in-person, community meetings from one end of the state to the other.</p>
<p>Of course, character should matter a great deal in evaluating possible presidents. In fact, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-iowa-caucuses-became-the-first-major-challenge-of-us-presidential-campaigns-220509">Iowa caucus first came into its own</a> in 1976 for just that reason. That year, voters saw <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/01/14/jimmy-carter-iowa-caucuses/">Jimmy Carter</a>, a plain-spoken Georgia governor, as a strong moral contrast to former president Richard Nixon and the tumultuous years of Watergate.</p>
<p>But nearly 50 years later, Iowans apparently ignored Trump’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61084161">legal woes</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/03/05/few-americans-express-positive-views-of-trumps-conduct-in-office/">questionable personal conduct</a> and gave him an overwhelming victory. </p>
<p>Much of this was the result of Trump’s <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/haley-desantis-to-debate-in-iowa-as-trump-again-skips-confrontation/7434375.html">refusal to participate</a> in any of the Iowa debates. Trump preferred to have fawning conversations with Fox News hosts, instead of doing many traditional, give-and-take <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/14/donald-trump-iowa-rally-republican-caucuses">community conversations</a> with thoughtful voters – the very reason for the Iowa Caucus. </p>
<p>In a sense, Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/us/politics/iowa-caucus-state-politics.html">dissed Iowa voters</a>. And Iowa voters, as a group, let him get away with it – or even rewarded him for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Hagle is affiliated with Republicans.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen J. Farnsworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From the ‘static’ polls to Trump’s ‘dissing’ of voters, two political scientists look at the Iowa caucus and see more than just the fact that Trump won it, resoundingly.Timothy Hagle, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of IowaStephen J. Farnsworth, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the UMW Center for Leadership and Media Studies, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201742024-01-16T13:25:01Z2024-01-16T13:25:01Z1 good thing about the Iowa caucuses, and 3 that are really troubling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568921/original/file-20240111-19-ds4fma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C49%2C2238%2C1515&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears at a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 10, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-former-president-donald-news-photo/1923679596?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every four years, the Iowa caucuses find new ways to become a problematic part of the presidential nomination process. Democrats have abandoned the Iowa-first tradition, at least for 2024, but Republicans went full speed ahead with the caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024.</p>
<p>If they were being honest, most politicians and political experts who are not from Iowa – and not planning to curry favor with Iowans someday – would concede that this caucus-first system is <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/iowa-caucuses-predict-president-history/story?id=106131420">far from the best way</a> to start to select a presidential nominee, especially considering the low voter turnout in an overwhelmingly white state. But changing old, familiar processes is never easy, particularly during these highly contentious times. </p>
<p>Even so, candidates who talk about the traditional first caucus state sometimes make a political misstep by being honest. </p>
<p>Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/us/politics/iowa-new-hampshire-primary-haley.html">Republican candidate Nikki Haley</a> dissed Iowa, telling a New Hampshire audience that their state primary that occurs after the Iowa caucuses would correct the mistakes made in Iowa. “You know Iowa starts it,” she said. “You know that you correct it.”</p>
<p>That’s the sort of thing a candidate trying to do well in Iowa says after the caucuses – not before.</p>
<p>With such honesty, it’s not surprising that former President <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/iowa/republican-presidential-primary">Donald Trump</a> earned 51% of the vote while GOP rivals Ron DeSantis could muster only 21% and Nikki Haley 19%. Further helping Trump was the shrinking field of GOP candidates that saw former Vice President <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mike-pence-2024-president-campaign-republican-trump-0ec44fc2a5b8683f34883e0ea72b2ab2">Mike Pence</a>, former New Jersey Gov. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/chris-christie-drops-2024-presidential-race-rcna127993">Chris Christie</a> and U.S. Senator <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/sen-tim-scott-drops-out-of-2024-presidential-race-shocking-donors-and-campaign-staff">Tim Scott</a> of South Carolina all drop out before the caucuses.</p>
<h2>Iowa’s upside for long-shot candidates</h2>
<p>Iowans, as well as residents of the traditional <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-hampshire-primary-date-2024-elections-first-in-the-nation-democrats/">first primary state of New Hampshire</a>, try to argue that their <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2022/10/27/iowa-poll-most-iowans-think-iowa-caucuses-should-remain-first/69561842007/">small-state selection processes</a> represent some of the last vestiges of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1957/12/norman-rockwells-america/640584/">Norman Rockwell’s America</a>, where deliberate, sober voters offer a grateful nation the carefully considered <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/new-hampshire-primary-president-joe-biden-gov-chris-sununu/">assessments of candidates</a> that come from community meetings too numerous to count. </p>
<p>That part of the argument is largely true – caucusgoers and voters in both states seem to take the process of evaluating potential presidents <a href="https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/iowans-take-voting-seriously/article_117b21cf-afa2-53f7-a996-e89976f136dd.html">very seriously</a>.</p>
<p>Fans of the Iowa caucuses also note that <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/24/lesser-known-republican-presidential-candidates-hope-iowa-caucuses-lift-their-chances/70924419007/">lesser-known candidates</a> can compete without having huge campaign war chests or political experience. But how is being inexperienced in government or being unpopular with party donors considered a good things for selecting presidents? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A brown-skinned man holds a microphone as dozens of white people listen to his campaign speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568684/original/file-20240110-21-yws4jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks in Decorah, Iowa, on Jan. 7, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-businessman-vivek-news-photo/1915569886?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This year, Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/politics/cnn-iowa-debate-qualified/index.html">star faded quickly</a>, and he failed to qualify for the final pre-Iowa debate hosted by CNN at Drake University in Des Moines. Ramaswamy could only <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/iowa/republican-presidential-primary">pull in 7%</a> of Iowa caucus voters despite his boasts of visiting each of Iowa’s 99 counties, a feat officially known as a “<a href="https://politicaldictionary.com/words/full-grassley/">full Grassley</a>,” named for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.</p>
<p>That’s part of a pattern for previous shooting stars in Iowa, including <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN20107Z/">Pete Buttigieg</a> in 2020, <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/caucus/2015/10/23/ben-carson-charges-9-points-ahead-of-donald-trump-iowa-poll-gop/74278414/">Ben Carson</a> in 2016, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/01/21/145553419/iowa-gop-officially-declares-santorum-the-iowa-caucus-winner">Rick Santorum</a> in 2012, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT008623/">Mike Huckabee</a> in 2008 and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dean-scream-remembering-infamous-iowa-caucus-speech/story?id=36711830">Howard Dean</a> in 2004. </p>
<p>They didn’t last all that long after Iowa. And in some cases, they began to flame out before the caucuses.</p>
<h2>Modern-day media realities</h2>
<p>Despite all the small-town narratives, Iowa’s caucus season increasingly has become a media-saturated process just like everything else in American politics.</p>
<p>And running in Iowa costs far more than in the past. </p>
<p>In the 2024 presidential campaign, Republican campaigns spent more than <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/republicans-spend-100-million-iowa-ads-come-rcna130856">US$100 million</a> on 2024 Iowa caucuses advertising, which amounts to about $600 for every Republican caucus participant. In the 2020 presidential campaign, the total amount of ad spending was <a href="https://www.kwwl.com/news/2020-political-ad-spending-how-much-was-spent/article_13729727-896a-505c-90fb-f08159f56b28.html">$44 million</a> – and that included spending from Democratic and Republican candidates. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing a red dress holda a microphone in front of a sign that says Fox News Democracy '24." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568728/original/file-20240110-31-oznma0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley participates in a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 8, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-former-u-n-ambassador-news-photo/1918255110?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The media’s outsized role involves more than just receiving inflated campaign spending. The fact that reporters focus on <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/horse-race-reporting-election/">horse-race dynamics</a> and downplay issues has long been a problem that diminishes interest and voter turnout, as media scholar <a href="https://communication.gmu.edu/people/slichter">S. Robert Lichter</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WzUF8jAAAAAJ">I</a> demonstrated in our 2010 book “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442200678/The-Nightly-News-Nightmare-Media-Coverage-of-U.S.-Presidential-Elections-1988-2008-Third-Edition">The Nightly News Nightmare</a>.”</p>
<p>Those who defend Iowa and New Hampshire say they are more accessible to lesser-known and inexperienced candidates, but national polling and fundraising, as well as media coverage, are increasingly used as criteria determining who can effectively participate in these small-state processes and who can’t.</p>
<h2>Long-standing flaws</h2>
<p>Another problem with Iowa is the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/01/31/what-to-know-about-the-iowa-caucuses/">low level of turnout</a>, despite the state’s privileged position. The largest Republican caucus turnout was 180,000 voters in 2016, and the best year for <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/02/07/election-2020-democratic-iowa-caucuses-turnout-eclipsed-2016-fell-short-2008/4691004002/">Democratic turnout</a> was 240,000 voters in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton. </p>
<p>Neither number is all that impressive in a state with a population of <a href="https://publications.iowa.gov/135/1/profile/8-14.html#">nearly 3 million people</a> and about <a href="https://independentvoterproject.org/voter-stats/ia">2 million registered voters</a>, of whom about 630,000 are registered Republicans. If Iowa switched to a primary, which would allow a daylong window for voting, evidence demonstrates there would be a lot more participation. Here’s why. </p>
<p>With limited exceptions, Iowa caucuses require a voter to appear in person during the evening in the middle of winter. This year, that meant at 7 p.m. on an evening that hit below-zero temperatures and heavy snow. Even for Iowans accustomed to the cold, turnout was lower as a result.</p>
<p>But unlike a caucus, a primary allows a person to devote only a few minutes to vote via mail or in person at a convenient time and place.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man carres his daughter on his shoulders as he walks with hundreds of other white people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568710/original/file-20240110-27-4k757a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida carries his daughter Madison while walking through the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on Aug. 12, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-florida-gov-ron-desantis-news-photo/1610098448?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aside from the convenience factor, the major problem with the Iowa caucuses is that the state does not remotely look like America.</p>
<p>According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the vast majority – <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/iowa-population">88%</a> – of Iowans are white. For the U.S. as a whole, that figure is about <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045222">75%</a>. What that means is that caucus results may not be reflective of the nation as a whole but merely a snapshot of a certain small-town, folksy part of America.</p>
<h2>Vote-counting delays</h2>
<p>Maybe some of these problems could be excused if the process worked well. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/upshot/iowa-caucuses-errors-results.html">it does not</a>.</p>
<p>Despite decades of experience in running caucuses, Iowa has demonstrated that it frequently cannot count. The New York Times described the 2020 Iowa caucuses as an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/politics/iowa-democratic-caucuses.html">epic meltdown</a>,” as results were not finalized for days.</p>
<p>The 2024 process went smoothly, but the 2020 caucuses weren’t the first to have problems. The 2012 Republican contest also suffered from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-santorum-finished-34-votes-ahead-of-%20romney-in-new-iowa-tally-votes-from-8-precincts-missing/2012/01/19/gIQAJGuRAQ_story.html">counting misfires</a> that took two weeks to resolve. </p>
<p>A delay in reporting results is not necessarily a bad thing. One wants to ensure accuracy, and delays of days for election results are normal in closely fought contests. But Iowa has demonstrated that its caucuses seem to generate more problems when it comes to reporting results than primaries do.</p>
<p>Democrats <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-politics-democrats-republican-campaign-1d624898">abandoned the 2024 Iowa caucuses</a> following the 2020 mess there and perhaps in part because President Joe Biden could hardly feel positively about the caucus system after <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/02/05/joe-biden-calls-4th-place-iowa-caucus-finish-gut-punch/4669943002/">his fourth-place finish</a> there in 2020.</p>
<p>This year, the Democratic process effectively bypasses Iowa and New Hampshire and starts with the South Carolina primary.</p>
<h2>A possible alternative?</h2>
<p>How might one fix these issues?</p>
<p>Well, scholars suggest a range of alternatives, including a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Imperfect-Primary-Oddities-Biases-and-%20Strengths-of-US-Presidential/Norrander/p/book/9780367274948">one-day, nationwide primary</a>, a small-state-first system that groups states of similar population sizes, or perhaps a series of five or so multistate regional primary contests, with the order of the regional groups determined by lottery. </p>
<p>None of these alternatives seems likely to happen, though, and that means the various problems with the Iowa caucus process will continue, regardless of which party is conducting one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen J. Farnsworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Iowa caucuses have long been an oddity in modern-day politics but remain a place where GOP candidates can test their presidential aspirations.Stephen J. Farnsworth, Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for Leadership and Media Studies, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168842023-11-09T13:35:47Z2023-11-09T13:35:47ZAs national political omens go, Republicans sought middle ground on abortion in Virginia − and still lost the state legislature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558378/original/file-20231108-21-ta5abq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2219%2C421%2C3631%2C3473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during a rally in Leesburg, Va., on Nov. 6, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gov-glenn-youngkin-speaks-during-a-get-out-the-vote-rally-news-photo/1779369936?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virginia-legislature-election-2023-79f9337731c25decc83b83eeb4d3e00e">election results</a> in Virginia offer Republicans across the country one key lesson before the 2024 presidential election: Revise the GOP position on the critical issue of abortion. </p>
<p>Though not on the ballot, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin had campaigned for other GOP members on his plan to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/virginia-gov-glenn-youngkin-bet-on-a-less-extreme-abortion-ban-and-lost">ban abortions after 15 weeks</a>, as opposed to the outright abortion ban that some Virginia politicians have promised to pass. Political observers saw Youngkin’s plan as a compromise that would limit the political fallout for the GOP from the U.S. Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html">reversal of Roe v. Wade</a>, which constitutionally protected the right to abortion.</p>
<p>Since the spring of 2023, when Youngkin first weighed in heavily in Republican primaries for the state legislature, Youngkin and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/glenn-youngkin-united-virginia-republicans-15-week-abortion-ban-pushed-rcna119199">other GOP candidates</a> emphasized the 15-week ban in the face of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/08/virginia-senate-house-election-results-2023/">relentless Democratic attacks</a>.</p>
<p>But Youngkin’s hopes that his 15-week ban would spare the party further political grief <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/virginia-election-abortion-glenn-youngkin-democrats-republicans.html">failed miserably</a>, as Democrats secured control over both legislative branches. </p>
<p>Largely on the strength of suburban voters outside Washington, D.C., and Virginia’s capital, Richmond, Democratic candidates who focused on the abortion issue <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/us/politics/glenn-youngkin-virginia.html">captured a majority</a> of seats in the House of Delegates and retained their majority in the Senate. </p>
<h2>Abortion was the key issue</h2>
<p>In my view as a political scientist, the effectiveness of the Democratic position on abortion shouldn’t be a surprise to Virginia voters and politicians. </p>
<p>Polls, including a September 2023 <a href="https://www.umw.edu/news/2023/09/27/virginians-closely-divided-over-2023-legislative-elections-in-statewide-survey/">statewide survey</a> by the University of Mary Washington and Research America Inc., demonstrated that Democrats were far more likely to vote based on the abortion question than Republicans were.</p>
<p>In that survey, 70% of Democrats considered abortion a major factor for them in the upcoming elections, as compared with 35% of Republicans. </p>
<p>Among independents, 54% said the abortion ruling was a major factor as they considered how to approach the Virginia midterms.</p>
<h2>Straddling GOP extremes</h2>
<p>Youngkin was elected governor two years ago as a largely unknown conservative who had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/glenn-youngkin-fortune-carlyle-virginia/2021/08/02/aeeebab4-efc5-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html">a lengthy business career</a> – and no legislative record. </p>
<p>In recent decades, Virginia went from a reliably Republican state in presidential elections to one where Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/virginia-results/">lost by 10 points</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>As a political novice, Youngkin successfully straddled the Republican dynamics of this purple state by trying to appeal to supporters of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement as well as moderate suburban Republicans uncomfortable with Trump’s chaotic administration and legal troubles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle aged white man dressed in a business suit watches another white man answer a question as he gestures with his hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558469/original/file-20231108-21-u6igh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Candidate and former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, debates Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin on Sept. 28, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-virginia-gov-terry-mcauliffe-debates-republican-news-photo/1343654379?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Youngkin offered up conservative cultural war messaging – particularly on parental rights in public schools that convinced Trump voters to cast ballots for him in his 2021 race against <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/07/politics/glenn-youngkin-parental-rights-education-strategy/index.html">Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe</a>. </p>
<p>But in a nod to suburban Republicans, Youngkin <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/politics/virginia-elections-glenn-youngkin/index.html">kept his distance</a> from the former president’s insistence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Youngkin won the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2021-elections/virginia-governor-results">2021 election</a> by two points. </p>
<p>As the first Republican to win a statewide election since 2009, his victory – and that of the newly Republican House of Delegates majority – <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/youngkins-virginia-win-offers-midterm-road-map-for-gop-warning-for-democrats-11635942003">energized the dispirited Republicans</a> lamenting the political changes in the state.</p>
<h2>Shifting political landscape</h2>
<p>To be sure, Youngkin wasn’t just another fresh face touting radically new ideas for his party. </p>
<p>His campaign’s focus on giving <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gov-youngkin-makes-final-pitch-virginia-voters-education/story?id=104678396#:%7E:text=In%202021%2C%20Youngkin%20ran%20on,could%20advance%20more%20education%20legislation.">parents more control</a> over local school districts connected with many white conservatives who were incensed that their children were being forced to read books that touched on contentious topics such as racism and sexuality.</p>
<p>Governing as a strident conservative focusing on easing COVID restrictions, cutting taxes and, above all, shifting the direction of public education, Youngkin ran into roadblocks <a href="https://apnews.com/article/religion-education-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-virginia-490f552bb055df29af890b703e06e605">in the Virginia Senate</a>, where Democrats remained in the majority. </p>
<p>In one example, the Youngkin administration <a href="https://richmond.com/news/local/education/new-draft-history-standards-reorient-framing-of-race-relations/article_4504a142-7775-546d-9ea0-3c4272436a00.html">proposed a set of revisions</a> to the state’s Standards of Learning in history and social sciences. </p>
<p>Those proposed standards failed to mention Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day and drew the ire of Black politicians and parents <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/11/17/missing-context-political-bias-some-of-critics-objections-to-virginias-new-history-standards/">who criticized the proposal</a> as “whitewashing.” </p>
<p>Youngkin’s proposals <a href="https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/board-of-education-rejects-youngkins-proposed-revisions-to-k-12-history-standards/article_ac6dbdb1-8632-5abd-97e4-39b978982b3f.html">were later rejected</a> by the state Board of Education.</p>
<p>After two years of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/06/23/virginia-school-board-critical-race-theory-mh-orig.cnn">contentious suburban school board meetings</a> in places like Loudoun and Spotsylvania counties, Democrats had a response to Youngkin’s views on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/02/parents-right-movement-virginia-republicans">parental rights </a>. They argued that the GOP empowered extremists who want to ban books and tell lies about U.S. and Virginia history. </p>
<p>As a result, a <a href="https://www.umw.edu/news/2023/09/27/virginians-closely-divided-over-2023-legislative-elections-in-statewide-survey/">preelection statewide poll</a> showed that the education issue largely split the electorate down the middle, with roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans saying that school policies were important to their choice in the Virginia midterm elections. </p>
<h2>Where does election leave Youngkin and GOP?</h2>
<p>With the failure of his plan to recast the abortion debate, Youngkin faces another loss that has significant influence on how he might achieve any legislative victories in the remaining two years of his term. </p>
<p>Democrats control the state legislature, and Youngkin’s tenure may be marked by more legislative gridlock. </p>
<p>Youngkin might want to cooperate more with Democratic lawmakers going forward, but as a longtime analyst of Virginia politics, I believe the time when an olive branch would have been most effective was two years ago.</p>
<p>Instead, Youngkin started his term by defining himself as a partisan champion, albeit not a fully pro-Trump Republican.</p>
<p>He has reached the halfway point in his tenure where neither of those positions were rewarded by voters. That’s not a good sign for a guy once touted as a possible GOP presidential candidate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen J. Farnsworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Democrats regained the Virginia legislature in the 2023 election, and that spells trouble for Republicans seeking to win the White House in 2024.Stephen J. Farnsworth, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the UMW Center for Leadership and Media Studies, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2142332023-09-26T12:26:05Z2023-09-26T12:26:05ZWhy separating fact from fiction is critical in teaching US slavery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550107/original/file-20230925-19-upjed7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=453%2C137%2C2320%2C1717&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Black actor in 1974 impersonating an enslaved man in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/high-stepping-team-of-carriage-horses-drawing-sightseers-news-photo/502825763?adppopup=true">George Bryant/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the debate over teaching U.S. slavery, it is one sentence of Florida’s <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20653/urlt/6-4.pdf">revised academic standards</a> that has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/17/us/florida-black-history-backlash-reaj/index.html">provoked particular ire</a>: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”</p>
<p>Does this sentence constitute “propaganda,” as <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/07/21/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-on-the-florida-state-board-of-education-curriculum-updates/">Vice President Kamala Harris</a> proclaimed, “an attempt to gaslight us?”</p>
<p>Or is it a reasonable claim in a discussion of a difficult topic?</p>
<p>Whatever it is, the sentence is of a sort not unique to the teaching of enslavement in Florida. It is, instead, an example of how some Americans transform the racist history of this country into an uplifting – and sanitized – moral lesson.</p>
<h2>Truth or fiction?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://anthropology.as.virginia.edu/people/richard-handler">our view</a> as <a href="https://cas.umw.edu/sociologyanthropology/eric-gable/">cultural anthropologists</a>, the disputed sentence is true as <a href="https://ncph.org/what-is-public-history/how-historians-work/">historians define facts</a> – tiny nuggets of truth one can find in archives, artifacts and diaries.</p>
<p>It is a fact that small numbers of the enslaved <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/history/2023/07/27/did-floridas-enslaved-learn-beneficial-skills-heres-what-they-said/#:%7E:text=Margarett%20Nickerson%20spoke%20of%20skills,hired%20farmhands%20and%20the%20enslaved.">acquired skills</a> that allowed them to earn money, to save it and to <a href="https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text1/text1read.htm">buy their freedom</a> and the freedom of family members. </p>
<p>It is also a fact that <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/free-blacks-in-the-antebellum-period.html">freed Black people in the antebellum era</a> helped other Black people to also acquire skills and became part of a segregated Black middle class in many Southern cities.</p>
<p>One might argue that such a sentence, because it is true, should not give rise to protest. But as scholars who have studied how history is taught in America, we learned that this particular nugget is neither trivial nor insignificant.</p>
<p>Instead, the one sentence in <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/floridas-new-education-standards-says-slavery-had-personal-benefits/">Florida’s new standards</a> allows Americans to transform a story about what we today call <a href="https://abc7news.com/systemic-racism-definition-structural-institutionalized-what-is/6292530/">structural racism</a> into an apocryphal story about <a href="https://time.com/6305543/horatio-alger-myth-american-dream/">Horatio Alger</a> and America’s rags-to-riches melting pot. </p>
<p>As this line of thinking goes, enslaved ancestors of contemporary African Americans labored just as most contemporary Americans’ ancestors labored: at the bottom, but able to climb up the social ladder with hard work and discipline. </p>
<p>And this is the problem: To portray enslaved people as laborers like free laborers is exactly how not to teach about slavery. </p>
<p>But it is a commonly used method that is called a “switching mechanism.” In this example, the story about the horrors of the slave system is transformed into a story about opportunity, success and the American dream. </p>
<h2>Switching the story at Colonial Williamsburg</h2>
<p>Thirty years ago, when we <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-new-history-in-an-old-museum">conducted anthropological research</a> at Colonial Williamsburg, we encountered the same narrative switching mechanism that is occurring now in Florida. </p>
<p>At that time, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/slavery-is-a-tough-role-hard-sell-at-colonial-williamsburg/2013/03/08/d78fa88a-8664-11e2-a80b-3edc779b676f_story.html">world-famous Virginia outdoor history museum</a> depicting a genteel, colonial America was trying to present the public with a truer picture of the past by incorporating the history of what they called “the Other Half” – the enslaved people who had been all but absent from the museum’s past portrayals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three Black men holding axes are appearing to work as carpenters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550104/original/file-20230925-17-3x87w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 2001 photograph, Black ‘interpreters’ are acting as carpenters in Colonial Williamsburg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/virginia-colonial-williamsburg-carpenters-news-photo/454431615?adppopup=true">Education Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it was difficult, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-new-history-in-an-old-museum">we found</a>, for the museum to sustain a narrative about the evils of the slave system. That’s because much of its paying audience of white middle-class tourists did not want to dwell on such tales, and second, its “interpreters,” or guides, found ways to switch the narrative. </p>
<p>Starting from a story about the enslaved being someone else’s property, they would transition to one suggesting the enslaved were working for their own advancement.</p>
<p>We heard stories <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-new-history-in-an-old-museum">during our research</a> like this: </p>
<p>• Don’t imagine that 18th century Williamsburg was like mid-19th century Mississippi cotton plantations, with families torn apart by avaricious masters, whippings, shackles and rape. Instead, in Williamsburg, slaves were valuable property. </p>
<p>• Consider that your average white yeoman farmer of the time had an annual income of about 20 pounds. Now consider that a highly trained slave cook was worth 500 pounds. Would your average owner be likely to abuse such a valuable piece of property? No! They’d treat that slave like an NFL quarterback! </p>
<p>Such stories conflated an enslaved laborer’s monetary value to his owner and the income of a white laborer. And that is how many visitors we listened to interpreted what they were hearing.</p>
<p>In other instances, we found conflicting messages. </p>
<p>In a skit that took us to the basement of an elite white Williamsburg household during Christmas, we witnessed Black interpreters portraying enslaved houseboys, maids and cooks complaining that they had to work harder than ever to create the festive atmosphere their owners desired. Meanwhile, upstairs, white interpreters portraying gentlemen conversing waxed philosophical about the evils of slavery coupled with the impossibility of getting rid of it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man dressed in an apron and carrying a stick is walking past a small house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550098/original/file-20230925-17-bllutu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Black actor playing a slave walks past a farmhouse in Colonial Williamsburg in 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-actor-playing-a-slave-walks-past-a-farmhouse-in-colonial-news-photo/521786056?adppopup=true">Nik Wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the conclusion of the story, we talked to two members of the audience who, it turns out, had learned different lessons. </p>
<p>One concluded that she had witnessed a universal story because workers everywhere grumble about their bosses. The other pointed out that if she disliked her boss, she could quit her job – something the enslaved couldn’t do.</p>
<p>Still, both were relieved to hear that slavery did not sit easy on the consciences of the white elite.</p>
<h2>Structural inequality or Horatio Alger?</h2>
<p>Switching mechanisms such as these are hard to dislodge. They remake the worst parts of the American story into a story consonant with the American Dream.</p>
<p>Today, not much has changed in Williamsburg. <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20653/urlt/6-4.pdf">In Florida</a> and many other states, switching allows designers of history curricula to avoid discussions on the lasting effects of racialized slave labor. They avoid discussing what that has meant to millions of people who did not, will not and cannot start on the same rung of the ladder of upward mobility that is available to other Americans who do not share a history of enslavement.</p>
<p>In our view, that is not a story that many Americans want to tell, teach or hear. </p>
<p>And so they switch to a different one, in which equal opportunity has been achieved, every one of us is capable of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, and failure to rise must be a result of individual weakness and vice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though it is a fact that some enslaved people learned valuable skills, it’s a myth that they had the same path of upward mobility that white laborers enjoyed.Eric Gable, Professor of Anthropology, University of Mary WashingtonRichard Handler, Professor of Anthropology, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075912023-06-13T12:56:21Z2023-06-13T12:56:21ZSilvio Berlusconi had a complex relationship with US presidents: Friend to one, shunned by another<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531504/original/file-20230613-15-3b421j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C122%2C2048%2C1321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Things looking up for the Bush-Berlusconi relationship.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-george-w-bush-and-italian-prime-minister-silvio-news-photo/119806434?adppopup=true">Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the administration of Geroge W. Bush needed an ally to help sell its <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/iraq-war">proposed invasion of Iraq</a> to a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-crisis-in-the-alliance/">skeptical European audience</a>, Silvio Berlusconi stepped forward.</p>
<p>It wasn’t that the Italian prime minister was particularly concerned over the threat of Saddam Hussein’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7634313">imagined</a> <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-crisis-in-the-alliance/">weapons of mass destruction</a> to his country, or the region – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/31/italy.usa">he wasn’t</a>. But it was a chance for the former businessman to burnish his credentials as an international statesman and to draw the U.S. closer into Italy’s orbit.</p>
<p>Indeed, strengthening U.S.-Italian relations was the key driver of Berlusconi’s foreign policy, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BEzB1hYAAAAJ&hl=en">I learned</a> while interviewing Berlusconi government officials for my 2011 book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Allies-War-Kosovo-Afghanistan/dp/0230614825">America’s Allies and War</a>.” The fact that Berlusconi couldn’t repeat the trick some years later when Barack Obama came to power was in large part entirely of his own making – he reportedly never recovered in the eyes of Obama from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/06/italy-barackobama">comments widely seen as racist</a>. Eventually, Berlusconi would again fall in line with Washington’s interventionist foreign policy – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/04/12/everyone-says-the-libya-intervention-was-a-failure-theyre-wrong/">this time in Libya</a> – but by then the damage had been done. Fair to say, the legacy in regards to U.S.-Italian relationship left by Berlusconi – who <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/former-italian-pm-silvio-berlusconi-has-died-italian-media-2023-06-12/">died on June 12, 2023,</a> at 86 – is mixed, a tale of two halves.</p>
<h2>A friend in need</h2>
<p>Italy never had the “<a href="https://www.georgewbushlibrary.gov/research/topic-guides/us-uk-special-relationship">special relationship</a>” that the U.K still claims to possess in regards to Washington. Nor did it have the clout of post-war France and Germany, whose economies were more central to the well-being of the European Union. Moreover, Italy’s political instability – it is currently on its <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/10/21/italy-is-set-for-its-68th-government-in-76-years-why-such-a-high-turnover">69th goverment since 1945</a> at a rate of one every 13 months or so – makes it more difficult to establish lasting bilateral political relationships.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, by the time Berlusconi came to power for a second time in 2001 – following a one-year stint as prime minister between 1994 and 1995 – Italy had gone some way to ingratiating itself with successive U.S. administrations. In 1990, Italy <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565">supported President George H.W. Bush’s military operation</a> in the Persian Gulf, joining a coalition of 39 countries opposing Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and sending fighter jets to support the subsequent aerial bombing campaign.</p>
<p>Then in 1999, Italian jets participated in airstrikes and Italian bases served as the main launching site for U.S. and NATO jets during the alliance’s <a href="https://www.nato.int/kosovo/">military operations in Kosovo</a>.</p>
<p>But the war in Iraq was different. By fall of 2002, George W. Bush had <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/this-day-in-politics-sept-4-2002-805725">made it clear</a> that he intended to invade. But by then, the U.S. had lost some of the near-unanimous international support that it was afforded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>Europe was divided. The public was <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/185298">very much against invasion</a>. But governments had to weigh political consequences at home, with the benefits of supporting the world’s largest economy.</p>
<p>Outside of the U.K, Berlusconi was Bush’s biggest European ally. Shrugging off <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/world/threats-and-responses-italy-florence-wary-as-opponents-of-war-stage-a-huge-march.html">massive street protests in Italian cities</a>, the opposition of many within the Italian parliament and public opinion that put support for the invasion <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_140583_smxx.pdf">as low as 22%</a>, Berlusconi went to bat for Bush’s war. </p>
<p>Unlike the U.K. – and to a lesser extent Australia and Poland – Italy did not directly participate in the invasion itself. But by April of 2003, Italy agreed to <a href="https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/italy-and-the-new-iraq-the-many-dimensions-of-a-successful-partnership-121530">send a contingent of 3,000 troops</a> to help stabilize Iraq. Explaining his rationale to the New York Times in 2003, Berlusconi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/world/berlusconi-urges-support-for-us-on-iraq.html">said it was “absolutely unthinkable</a>” to decline Bush’s request for an Italian military presence given how the U.S. had come to Europe’s aid after World War II.</p>
<p>Even sending that peace mission was controversial in Italy, especially after 17 Italian soldiers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/international/middleeast/at-least-26-killed-in-a-bombing-of-an-italian.html">were killed in a November 2003 attack</a>. in Iraq. Indeed, with elections around the corner, in 2005 Berlosconi announced <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7337476">Italian troops would withdraw</a> from the war-torn country.</p>
<h2>Surplus to US requirements</h2>
<p>Sticking his neck out for Bush’s war won Berlusconi friends in Washington. During the Bush’s administration, the Italian prime minister <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/visits/italy">visited the U.S. on 11 occasions</a> and was invited to <a href="https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/4da5ea3a0de9b336906cb83e3c71663a/ITALIAN-PRIME-MINISTER-BERLUSCONI-ADDRESSES-JOINT-SESSION-OF-CONGRESS/">address both houses of Congress</a> – a rarity for overseas leaders.</p>
<p>The deployment of Italian troops both in Iraq and also Afghanistan – where some 4,000 Italians were sent <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2021/Davidson_AlliesCostsofWar_Final.pdf">and 48 died</a> – helped stabilize the U.S.-Italian ties.</p>
<p>It wasn’t a one-way relationship. In return for military support, Berlusconi benefited from his elevated role in trans-Atlantic relations, being able to sell himself as a major international player at home. And remaining friendly with the world’s biggest economy is also prudent for a country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/business/italy-economy.html">prone to economic instability</a>.</p>
<p>So while he was ejected from office in Italy in 2006, he departed with a legacy of building up Italy’s standing with leaders in the U.S.</p>
<p>And then came the Obama years. Berlusconi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/15/italy1">returned to power in 2008</a>, the same year that Obama was elected to his first term in office. But even before Obama could be sworn in, the Italian prime minister had soured the relationship, referring to the U.S. president elect as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/06/italy-barackobama">young, handsome and tanned</a>.”</p>
<p>It may have been meant as a compliment, but it certainly came across as at best off-key, at worst racist.</p>
<p>Such eyebrow-raising remarks were, of course, not uncommon for Berlusconi, who gained a reputation for <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/silvio-berlusconis-most-controversial-distasteful-101700715.html">saying at times outrageous things</a>. But the incident didn’t bode well for bilateral relations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A glum looking man looks off to the side next to a similarly downcast man shuffling papers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-barack-obama-meets-with-italian-prime-minister-news-photo/88501434?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conversations I have had with officials in Obama’s White House and State Department and others in Washington suggest that it wasn’t primarily about Berlusconi’s comments; there was a feeling that by the late 2000s he wasn’t reliable and had little to offer.</p>
<p>There was, however, one last U.S.-led foreign intervention that the aging Italian prime minister could play a role in. In 2011 a coalition of NATO countries were entrusted to implement a <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm">U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya</a>, amid claims of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/18/muammar-gaddafi-war-crimes-files">civilian attacks by Moammar Gaddafi’s regime</a>. Berlusconi – mindful of Italy receiving a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-libya/gaddafi-hails-italy-for-overcoming-colonial-past-idUSTRE5593OO20090610">quarter of its oil from Libya</a> and reliant on the country to implement a deal aimed at preventing African immigrants arriving on Italian shores – resisted.</p>
<p>But after Obama threw his wholesale support behind NATO’s intervention, Berlusconi acquiesced and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13188951">joined Italy’s allies in the military coalition</a>. To Berlusconi, not being aligned with the U.S. was one thing; opposing Washington’s wishes entirely was a step too far.</p>
<h2>A precursor of the populist premier</h2>
<p>Much comment has been made over the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/berlusconi-italy-trump-president/587014/">similarities between Berlusconi and another U.S. president</a>: Donald J. Trump. No doubt, the pair share commonalities – businessmen whose forays into politics were marked by right-wing populism and many, many scandals.</p>
<p>But Berlusconi’s legacy as an Italian leader on trans-Atlantic relations is best seen through the lens of Trump’s two predecessors. And it is a very mixed legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Davidson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The former Italian prime minister died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 86. Throughout his terms in office he cultivated closer ties with the US – with mixed results.Jason Davidson, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870532022-09-20T12:37:30Z2022-09-20T12:37:30ZIndia’s economy has outpaced Pakistan’s handily since Partition in 1947 – politics explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484057/original/file-20220912-6429-3rcepx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C40%2C2946%2C2285&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lord Louis Mountbatten, viceroy of India, discusses Britain's partition plan with Hindu and Muslim leaders in the summer of 1947. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndiaRoundTableConference/0fbd8f0a7e2244d4b293d992e37517e8/photo?Query=mountbatten%20nehru%20jinnah&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Max Desfor</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>India and Pakistan inherited the same economic legacy of <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12849">underinvestment and neglect</a> from Britain when they <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-indias-partition-82432">became independent states following the Partition</a> on Aug. 15, 1947. Their colonial economies were among the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12849">poorest in the world</a>.</p>
<p>For both nations, independence almost immediately led to strong growth and fueled significant gains in education, health care and other areas of development. But it was Pakistan that saw <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/india-vs-pakistan-a-tale-of-two-economies/articleshow/79450051.cms">faster growth rates</a> during the first four decades or so, while India lagged behind. </p>
<p>Something began to change around the 1990s as their roles reversed and India <a href="https://statisticstimes.com/economy/india-vs-pakistan-economy.php">vaulted ahead of Pakistan</a>, eventually becoming the <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true">world’s third-biggest economy by purchasing power</a> and the “I” in BRICS – an acronym referring to a <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/brics">bloc of five key emerging market</a> countries.</p>
<p>What accounts for India’s growth spurt? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjOgoPyqfb5AhVOomoFHf6pC18QFnoECBAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcas.umw.edu%2Fpolisci%2Fabout-the-faculty%2Fsurupa-gupta%2F&usg=AOvVaw3ZDZasTFaoyRh07Ixz3owW">scholar of international political economy</a>, I believe India’s stronger embrace of democracy – at the same time that Pakistan experienced frequent military dictatorships and changes in government – has a lot to do with it. </p>
<h2>A colonial inheritance</h2>
<p>From 1857 to 1947, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1947/06/22/archives/princely-states-pose-another-india-problem-end-of-british-rule.html">Britain ruled directly</a> over most of the territory that became the independent states of India and Pakistan. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1257/089533002760278749">Economic growth under British rule was minimal</a>, averaging just 0.9% a year from 1900 to 1947. This happened largely because the colonial Indian economy was mostly agricultural, and yet the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12849">British made little investment</a> in improving farm productivity. </p>
<p>Additionally, Great Britain made limited investments in the well-being of the people of India, notably by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12849">underfunding their education and health care</a>. As a result, colonial India had one of the lowest literacy rates in the world <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12849">at about 17%</a>, and life expectancy <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991749/">was in the mid-30s</a>. Britain’s neglect of the plight of Indians is perhaps best illustrated by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/0198284632.003.0006">1943 famine in Bengal in eastern India</a>, in which over 1.5 million people died as result of policy failure. </p>
<h2>Post-independence growth, led by Pakistan</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-indias-partition-82432">Britain decided to give up</a> its “jewel in the crown” and partition the region into Hindu-dominated India and Muslim Pakistan after facing mounting pressure from the local population and a growing nationalist movement.</p>
<p>This led to one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-indias-partition-82432">largest forced migrations</a> of the 20th century: Nearly 9 million Hindus and Sikhs moved into India and about 5 million Muslims to a geographically separated East and West Pakistan over the next two decades. An estimated 1 million people died amid mass violence. </p>
<p>Economic growth, however, took off, with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/india-9780199751563?q=the%20emerging%20giant&lang=en&cc=us">both new</a> <a href="http://www.jstor.com/stable/41260052">countries growing</a> at 3% to 4% in the first decade or so of independence as the respective governments invested more into their economies. But soon, differences emerged. </p>
<p>While both economies were largely state controlled, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/india-9780199751563?q=the%20emerging%20giant&lang=en&cc=us">India’s government curtailed exports</a> and adopted a protectionist trading policy in the 1960s that limited growth. </p>
<p>Pakistan, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2021.1904590">benefited from significant trade</a> from its East Pakistan region. The newly created Pakistan was geographically separated by India – on one side of it was West and the other side East Pakistan. Each was carved out by the British due to its Muslim majority. Pakistan <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dr/99696.htm">lost its growth engine</a> in 1971, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh following a war of independence.</p>
<p>Pakistan also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jul/11/us-aid-to-pakistan">received billions of dollars in military aid</a> from the U.S. Fellow oil-rich Muslim countries in the Middle East have also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43698156">given aid to Pakistan</a>. As a result, Pakistan’s growth accelerated to about 6% a year from 1961 to 1980, compared with 4% for India.</p>
<p><iframe id="cNYSK" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cNYSK/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>India vaults ahead</h2>
<p>The growth script flipped in the 1990s, with <a href="https://databank.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG/1ff4a498/Popular-Indicators">India growing at a 6% rate</a> over the next 30 years, outpacing Pakistan’s 4%. </p>
<p>What explains the role reversal? Economics and politics both played a part. </p>
<p>Pakistan has long relied on external sources of funding more than India has, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41261157">receiving $73 billion in foreign aid</a> from 1960 to 2002. And even today, it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2019.1667302">frequently relies on institutions</a> such as the International Monetary Fund for crisis lending and on foreign governments like China for aid and infrastructure development. </p>
<p>The aid has allowed Pakistan to postpone <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23734731">much-needed but painful reforms</a>, such as expanding the tax base and addressing energy and infrastructure problems, while the loans have saddled the country with a large debt. Such reforms, in my view, would have put Pakistan on a more sustainable growth path and encouraged more foreign investment. </p>
<p><iframe id="ABEY2" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ABEY2/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>While <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.ODA.ODAT.CD?locations=IN">India also got a fair amount</a> of support from <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/arwh/2/2/article-p217_5.xml">international aid groups and a few countries</a> such as the U.S. earlier in its existence, it never depended upon it – and has relied less on it in recent decades. In addition, in 1991, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/india-9780199751563?q=the%20emerging%20giant&lang=en&cc=us">India liberalized trade</a>, lowered tariffs, made it easier for domestic companies to operate and grow, and opened the door to more foreign investment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="men wearing blue lab coats and face masks pack vials into boxes on a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483785/original/file-20220909-7447-9kunmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India has become a major exporter of advanced goods such as software and vaccines in recent years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Indiaat75-JoblessEconomy/44a0a4dd58094ae187d34b0229009c8d/photo?Query=india%20%201947%20poverty&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2004/wp0443.pdf">These reforms paid off</a>: By integrating India’s economy to the rest of the world, the reforms created market opportunities for Indian companies, made them more competitive, and that, in turn, led to higher growth rates for the overall economy.</p>
<p>Another way to measure the different paths is in gross domestic product per person. In 1990, India and Pakistan <a href="https://databank.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG/1ff4a498/Popular-Indicators">had almost identical per-capita GDPs</a>, a little under $370 per person. But by 2021, India’s had surged to $2,277, about 50% higher than Pakistan’s.</p>
<p><iframe id="RkfKO" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/RkfKO/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The reasons for their different choices have a lot to do with politics. </p>
<p>Pakistan <a href="https://asiasociety.org/education/pakistan-political-history">has suffered from near-constant political instability</a>. From 1988 to 1998 alone, it had seven different governments as it alternated between civilian and military governments following coups. This <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1540496X.2018.1504207">discouraged foreign investment</a> and made it much harder to make reforms and follow through on them. Through all these changes, Pakistan’s <a href="https://milex.sipri.org/sipri">military spending as a share of its GDP</a> remained higher than India’s during the entire post-independence period.</p>
<p>India, on the other hand, has managed to maintain a steady democracy. Though it’s far from perfect, it has kept leaders more accountable to the people and led to more inclusive growth and less reliance on foreign institutions or governments. In one decade alone, <a href="https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/report-india-lifted-271-million-people-out-poverty-decade">India lifted over 270 million people</a> out of poverty. </p>
<p>At a time when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/world/democracy-threat.html">democracy is under threat</a> in so many parts of the world, this history, in my view, reminds us of the value of democratic institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Surupa Gupta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Economic growth picked up significantly for both India and Pakistan after independence, but they’ve chosen very different paths since.Surupa Gupta, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1819292022-06-01T12:13:28Z2022-06-01T12:13:28ZModern-day struggle at James Madison’s plantation Montpelier to include the descendants’ voices of the enslaved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464532/original/file-20220520-16-5xelh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1073%2C561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reconstructed slave cabins at James Madison's Montpelier in Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen P. Hanna</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 17, 2022, after weeks of negative stories on Montpelier in the national press, the foundation that operates the Virginia plantation home of James Madison finally made good on its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/16/madison-montpelier-descendant-community-foundation-board/">promise to share authority</a> with descendants of people enslaved by the man known as “the father” of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>This agreement is the result of a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/04/22/james-madison-montpelier-plantation-descendants/">long struggle by this descendant community</a> to make enslaved people more prominent in the history Montpelier offers the public.</p>
<p>Though presidential plantation museums began addressing the topic of enslavement over 20 years ago, descendants were not given power over their ancestors’ stories.</p>
<p>In 2018, provoked by years of slavery’s being taught in <a href="https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/teaching-hard-history-american-slavery">erroneous ways</a>, a summit of educators, museum professionals and descendants gathered at Montpelier to define a <a href="https://montpelierdescendants.org/rubric/">set of best practices</a> for how historic sites should work with descendant communities. </p>
<p>Ensuring that enslaved people’s descendants have power and authority within these institutions is central to the guide. </p>
<p>Working toward that goal in 2021, Montpelier announced a historic agreement giving descendants equal representation on its board of directors.</p>
<p>These innovations made Montpelier a leader in slavery interpretation. </p>
<p>But that status was threatened earlier this year when Montpelier <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/20/1093673939/montpeliers-fight-with-descendants-of-the-enslaved-brings-employee-firings">dissolved its power-sharing agreement</a> with the descendant community. </p>
<p>The foundation’s chairman said the board “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/25/james-madison-montpelier-enslaved-vote/">has found the committee (representing descendants) difficult to work with</a>.”</p>
<p>Montpelier also fired senior staff who protested this decision, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/20/1093673939/montpeliers-fight-with-descendants-of-the-enslaved-brings-employee-firings">accusing them of speaking</a> “disparagingly, even hatefully, of the volunteer Board that governs this historic American Treasure.”</p>
<p>A firestorm of protest erupted.</p>
<p>Thousands signed petitions urging Montpelier to live up to its promise to work with the descendants. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Montpelier, <a href="https://nthp-savingplaces.s3.amazonaws.com/2022/03/28/17/41/34/452/NTHP%20Letter%20to%20Eugene%20Hickock%203-24-2022%20(002).pdf">stated that the foundation’s actions</a> “would set back Montpelier’s efforts to continue the necessary work of uplifting descendant’s voices.”</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/17506980221094515">Our research at Montpelier</a> and at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello suggests descendant community involvement with the operations of a site affects what visitors learn about slavery at these museums. </p>
<p>As cultural geographers studying how <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820360935/remembering-enslavement/">enslavement is presented at historic sites</a>, we realize the importance of creating bonds between visitors and the struggles of enslaved communities at these historic homes. </p>
<p>Such bonds help the public understand slavery’s role in the lives of the Founding Fathers and in the creation of the American nation.</p>
<h2>Descendant voices at plantation museums</h2>
<p>Montpelier, Monticello and Mount Vernon are popular tourist destinations in Virginia where the public can experience, interpret and identify with historical figures and events.</p>
<p>Before the pandemic in 2020, staff estimated that each year 125,000 people <a href="https://www.willistonobserver.com/six-reasons-to-visit-james-madisons-montpelier/">visited Montpelier</a>, over 400,000 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/16/us/sally-hemings-exhibit-monticello.html">visited Monticello</a> and <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/about/">over 1 million</a> visited Mount Vernon.</p>
<p>Some of these visitors find it <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2013/09/06/ask-a-slave">hard to reconcile</a> the Founding Fathers’ contributions to American democracy with their enslavement of Black men, women and children.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People standing in line in front of George Washington's Mount Vernon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464524/original/file-20220520-20-xv0uq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd waits to tour George Washington’s Mount Vernon outside Alexandria, Va.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen P. Hanna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For most of their histories, presidential sites catered to mostly white visitors by <a href="https://www.smithsonianbooks.com/store/anthropology-archaeology/representations-slavery/">downplaying slavery</a> to maintain the <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/tph/article-abstract/36/1/36/90579/Ask-a-Slave-and-Interpreting-Race-on-Public?redirectedFrom=fulltext">reputations of national heroes</a>. </p>
<p>Descendant communities increasingly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/us/politics/monroe-slavery-highland.html">claim presidential plantations</a> as sites where they can incorporate their historical struggles and contributions into the nation’s story.</p>
<p>This places them front and center in the ongoing battle over how slavery is remembered at the homes of America’s first presidents. </p>
<p>Anthropologist Antoinette Jackson argues that descendant community involvement with plantation museums helps the public understand the diversity of <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01353.x">Black lives before and after emancipation</a>.</p>
<p>Her research also suggests that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Enslaved-Interpretation-Antebellum-Plantation/dp/1598745492">descendant voices disrupt</a> the long-standing white-centric history told at historic sites that has downplayed the everyday practices of living, resisting and surviving that characterized enslaved communities.</p>
<h2>Studying visitor experiences</h2>
<p>To determine the effect that descendant community involvement had on visitor experiences at Montpelier, Monticello and Mount Vernon, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F17506980221094515">surveyed 1,386 adult visitors</a> when they first arrived in 2019 and 2020.</p>
<p>We also documented the three museums’ tours and exhibits and surveyed 1,033 adult visitors as they left. The overwhelming majority of visitors – 86% – identified as white, suggestive of how uninviting these sites have been to people of color. </p>
<p>On the pre-visit survey, 81% of visitors said they were very to extremely interested in learning about Madison, Jefferson and Washington. In comparison, only 57% said they were very or extremely interested in learning about enslavement. </p>
<p><iframe id="sVyQb" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/sVyQb/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Over 90% of visitors took tours of the presidents’ mansions. While enslavement was mentioned on these tours, guides pointed at antique desks and painted portraits to emphasize that Washington, Jefferson and Madison were key players in America’s founding. </p>
<p>According to staff we interviewed, descendants had little say over the content of mansion tours.</p>
<p>Descendant involvement in the sites’ slavery tours and exhibits varied across the the three sites. </p>
<p>The “Slavery at Monticello” tour included enslaved people’s biographies drawn from the oral history project <a href="https://www.monticello.org/getting-word?ref=oralhistories.">Getting Word</a>, in which descendants shared their stories and those of their ancestors with museum staff. </p>
<p>On the tour, guides mention that members of the Fossett family, for instance, <a href="https://www.monticello.org/getting-word/people/joseph-fossett">purchased their freedom</a>, moved to Cincinnati and helped fugitive slaves find freedom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crowd of visitors listening to a tour guide during the Slavery at Monticello Tour" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464525/original/file-20220520-18-6zj9k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Slavery at Monticello Tour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen P. Hanna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Full-sized photograph of Ms. Leontyne Peck with text describing her enslaved ancestors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464526/original/file-20220520-24-wkor54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panel with audio of Leontyne Peck speaking about her enslaved ancestors at Montpelier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen P. Hanna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Montpelier, descendants helped design “<a href="https://www.montpelier.org/resources/mere-distinction-of-colour">The Mere Distinction of Colour”</a> exhibit. It featured the voices of descendants who connected the facts of slavery in America’s past to its legacy in the nation’s present. </p>
<p>At Mount Vernon, the material presented on tours and exhibits that focused on enslavement was thorough and well researched, but contributions of descendants were not featured as much as at the other two museums. </p>
<p>After their visits, people at all three sites reported learning more about Washington, Jefferson and Madison than about enslaved people.</p>
<p>They also stated that these three men had a greater impact on the development of the United States than slavery did.</p>
<p>These results are not surprising. </p>
<p>Visitors arrived more interested in learning about the presidents and almost all took the mansion tours where guides talked more about the Founding Fathers’ accomplishments than enslavement.</p>
<h2>The impact of different voices</h2>
<p>Between 40% and 70% of surveyed visitors experienced tours or exhibits about enslaved people, but the voices of descendants made visitor experiences at Montpelier and Monticello much different than at Mount Vernon.</p>
<p><iframe id="bnZc0" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bnZc0/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Forty percent of 140 Montpelier visitors surveyed reported learning a great deal about enslaved people. </p>
<p>In comparison, 32% of 389 Monticello respondents and only 16% of 504 Mount Vernon visitors said they learned a great deal.</p>
<p>Descendant voices at Montpelier and Monticello also helped visitors understand slavery’s impacts on the development of the United States. Fifty-seven percent of respondents at these sites stated that slavery had a great deal of impact on the nation. Only 42% of Mount Vernon visitors said the same.</p>
<p>Finally, visitor experiences are influenced by how much they <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258193993_Tour_Guides_as_Creators_of_Empathy_The_Role_of_Affective_Inequality_in_Marginalizing_the_Enslaved_at_Plantation_House_Museums">engage emotionally</a> with what is said in museum tours and exhibits.</p>
<p>The voices of descendants made a difference in this regard. </p>
<p>At Montpelier and Monticello, over 80% said felt more empathy for enslaved people because of their visit. In contrast, just over 70% of Mount Vernon visitors said their empathy increased.</p>
<h2>Tough choices</h2>
<p>Presidential sites of the Founding Fathers are popular destinations that help people form their understanding of American history. </p>
<p>Their plantations are key elements for the public to put presidential reputations in conversation with the struggles of enslaved people and the voices of their descendants. </p>
<p>But as presidential museums try to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10598650.2016.1275468">redress their longtime neglect of enslaved Black people</a>, a few vocal visitors accuse guides <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/08/plantations-are-talking-more-about-slavery-grappling-with-visitors-who-talk-back/">of attacking the reputations of the white founders</a>.</p>
<p>In our view, <a href="https://www.museumsarenotneutral.com/learn-more/we-are-stronger-together">museums must be mindful</a> of the roles they play in either reproducing or challenging racial exclusions still found in American understanding of history. </p>
<p>Intensive public criticism helped make the Montpelier Foundation choose to challenge such exclusions. </p>
<p>On May 25, 2022, the new governing board, half of whose members are now enslaved people’s descendants, named Elizabeth Chew as new interim president. Along with two others, Chew had been fired on April 18, 2020, as chief curator of the presidential home. </p>
<p>While accepting the new position <a href="https://www.montpelier.org/learn/montpelier_statement_25may2022">she said</a>, “We must embrace history’s complexity and welcome the leadership of the living voices for those who were silenced here.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen P. Hanna is affiliated with American Association of Geographers</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Potter receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek H. Alderman receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is affiliated with the American Association of Geographers.. </span></em></p>Once owned by James Madison, the Montpelier plantation remains a model for presenting a full depiction of the life of the former president as well as the lives of those he enslaved.Stephen P. Hanna, Professor of Geography, University of Mary WashingtonAmy Potter, Associate Professor of Geography, Georgia Southern UniversityDerek H. Alderman, Professor of Geography, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1545372021-02-16T13:26:51Z2021-02-16T13:26:51ZIndian farmers are a powerful force in Indian politics, and here’s why their protests matter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383857/original/file-20210211-20-1prnd2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C17%2C3799%2C2483&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large number of women have joined the protests against new farm laws in India.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/farmers-congregate-at-tikri-during-the-ongoing-protest-news-photo/1231087392?adppopup=true">Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For over two months, farmers in India have been on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/26/22242395/india-farmer-protest-republic-day-delhi">a largely peaceful</a> <a href="https://qz.com/india/1920840/a-timeline-of-the-months-long-farmer-protests-in-india/">protest</a> over <a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1656929">three laws</a> the Indian Parliament passed in September 2020 to liberalize how and to whom farmers can sell their produce. </p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/international-news-india-new-delhi-coronavirus-pandemic-9985c84b0ea70aba6331ba16bba4982a">Men and women</a>, young and old, have been participating in these protests and show no signs of giving up. Tens of thousands of farmers from all over India came together on Feb. 6 <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/6/22270309/india-protests-farmers-blockades">to set up blockades across all main roads</a> in the country, shutting down all traffic for nearly three hours.</p>
<p>As a scholar of the <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/publication/political-economy-agricultural-policy-reform-india-0">political economy</a> of India’s agricultural sector, I argue that farmers in India, though not organized, have nonetheless been a formidable political force in the country. In the past, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159408438553">brought the nation’s cities to a near standstill</a> in disputes with the government, and they could do so again. </p>
<h2>India’s regulated farm markets</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1656929">government claims</a> that the new laws are meant to raise farmers’ incomes and transform Indian agriculture. According to the government, they will also end “<a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1657657">excessive regulatory interference</a>” and thereby encourage the private sector to invest in storage, transportation and other parts of the agriculture supply chain. The laws will, officials say, offer farmers the opportunity to market their produce to various groups of buyers – processors, retailers, exporters and so on.</p>
<p>In the past, the Indian government has played a major role in providing <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/publication/political-economy-agricultural-policy-reform-india-0">farm infrastructure in India</a>. </p>
<p>In response to persistent food insecurity in the 1960s, the government put in place a set of policies that would increase agricultural production through the use of inputs such as high-yielding seeds, <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/publication/political-economy-agricultural-policy-reform-india-0">chemical fertilizers and adequate water and electricity supply</a>. </p>
<p>On the demand side, the government bought grain and other commodities from the farmers, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/minimum-support-price-msp-farmers-explained-6706253/">guaranteeing floor prices</a>, and then distributed the food to consumers throughout the country. </p>
<p>To maintain price stability and to protect farmers from being ripped off by middlemen, the government created <a href="https://www.ncaer.org/events/ipf-2016/IPF-2016-Paper-Chatterjee-Kapur.pdf">regulated markets</a>. These policies, which began within two decades of India’s independence in 1947, were consistent with the socialist model of governance India had adopted.</p>
<p>However, according to experts, these regulated markets, created to protect farmers, emerged as <a href="https://www.ncaer.org/events/ipf-2016/IPF-2016-Paper-Chatterjee-Kapur.pdf">obstacles to growth</a> in the farm sector. </p>
<h2>Farmers’ apprehensions</h2>
<p>Under the Indian Constitution, regulation of agriculture happens at the state level. During the last two decades, <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/model-apmc-act-adopted-by-16-states-pawar/article23072759.ece">several states</a> have changed policies to make it easier for farmers to sell outside those regulated markets, but those policy changes were not enough to attract the private sector to invest in the <a href="https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/three-farm-bills">agricultural supply chain</a>. The government claims that the new laws <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/explained-why-farmers-fear-losing-msp-under-new-laws/articleshow/79523591.cms">will create uniform legislation</a> across the country. </p>
<p>Farmers, however, are <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/farmers-protest-talks-with-centre-sucha-singh-gill-7091057/">afraid</a> that the new laws will drive down prices and drive the farmers off their lands.</p>
<p>They are also concerned about the unbalanced negotiating power with a powerful corporate sector, which would own infrastructure such as warehouses and refrigerated transportation. </p>
<h2>The power of farmers</h2>
<p>While farmers may not have much power individually, they have been a force to contend with in Indian politics. </p>
<p>Most notably, in the 1980s, farmers protesting low crop prices and demanding free electricity supply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159408438553">brought New Delhi to a standstill</a>. At the time, farmers’ groups with diverse political ideologies from various parts of the country quickly unified behind their common demands.</p>
<p>At that time, in New Delhi, they held protest marches as a show of power; in rural India, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159408438553">restricted entry</a> of government officials into their own offices; and nationally, they blocked food transportation routes. </p>
<p>The federal government yielded to their pressure and raised the minimum support price of crops; <a href="https://www.epw.in/journal/2001/35/special-articles/power-politics.html">many state governments</a> offered free electricity to farmers. </p>
<p>Farmers also demonstrated their power on several occasions when the Indian government was engaged in negotiations to form the World Trade Organization. Pressure from farmers led India to demand <a href="https://econpapers.repec.org/article/oupajagec/v_3a84_3ay_3a2002_3ai_3a3_3ap_3a754-761.htm">high tariff protection</a> – ranging from 100% to 300% – as a way to lessen the competition from imports. </p>
<p>India’s rural economy is still largely dependent on <a href="http://www.fao.org/india/fao-in-india/india-at-a-glance/en/">farming and related activities</a>, and the farm sector accounts for nearly <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/budget/india-economic-survey-2018-for-farmers-agriculture-gdp-msp/1034266/">50% of the workforce</a>. Farmers also constitute an important voting bloc.</p>
<h2>Nationwide support</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Indian farmers blockade roads" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383859/original/file-20210211-17-1lqcfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers participate in a road blockade as part of their protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/farmers-shout-slogans-as-they-take-part-in-a-three-hour-news-photo/1231003795?adppopup=true">Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The current protests are being led by farmers mainly from the northern states of <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/current-affairs-trends/farmer-protests-heres-why-punjab-and-haryana-farmers-are-on-the-warpath-6190521.html">Haryana and Punjab</a>, states that are central to India’s food supply. These are the states from which the Indian government buys a majority of the wheat and rice that is eventually <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-farms-protests-explainer-idCAKBN28E1WI">distributed at subsidized prices to consumers</a> in the rest of India. In the past, farmers from these states have enjoyed enormous political clout as well. To add to the power of these protests, farmers from other states have been been joining the protests. </p>
<p>The current administration, thus far, has indicated that it <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55744967">will not roll back the laws</a>. Prolonging the protest, in my view, makes the administration appear ineffective, a risk it can scarcely take with major state elections looming ahead. The protest is costly to farmers as well.</p>
<p>Although the protests have been largely peaceful so far, on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/26/22242395/india-farmer-protest-republic-day-delhi">clashes took place</a> between farmers and the police. If that happens again, it would be an alarming prospect for all concerned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Surupa Gupta received funding from International Food Policy Research Institute during 2005-2006.
</span></em></p>India’s farmers have been protesting for months. An expert on India’s agricultural sector explains why governments in the past have paid heed to their demands.Surupa Gupta, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.