Laying the Groundwork – Day 1 of Class

Today, the American Politics seminar had two amazing speakers bringing varied perspectives on the polarization that has occurred both within the Beltway and throughout America.

In the morning, we met up on L Street to visit the Pew Research Center and hear from their Senior Survey Advisor and pollster extraordinaire Scott Keeter. Pew is known as a very non-biased fact collecting Center that creates indisputable facts based on large samples of Americans or other groups. They’re findings are taken as fact throughout Washington by both parties, and it was an absolute treat to hear from someone so experienced in dissecting political polarization in the American public since they began polarization research in 2003. Topics discussed at Pew included survey methodology, antipathy between the parties, the roll of polling in modern politics, and much more.

Scott Keeter of Pew Research Center presenting facts about polarization to W&M in Washington students

After breaking for lunch (where I met up with some W&M friends not in the seminar!), we met back together in the W&M in DC office in Dupont to talk to Tim Torma, the policy director for the Office of Sustainable Communities in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His perspective was from that of an executive branch agency, whose abilities are defined by parameters given to them through legislation passed by Congress, but then given more detailed instruction within those parameters by the executive branch. Polarization in Congress has made it increasingly hard for such agencies to do their job, and as such, he and his team have found it hard to communicate to congressional leaders as those who don’t agree with the agency’s purpose close of all channels of discourse.

We meet bright and early tomorrow for a jam packed day!

Until tomorrow,

Reed Timoner, American Politics Seminar, ’19