My Inauguration Eve Remarks about President Biden's Looming Challenge

Dr. Nathan R. Shrader

Chair, Millsaps College Department of Government and Politics

Remarks at New England College Pre-Inauguration College Convention

January 19, 2021 @10:30am CST

 

Good morning from Mississippi the birthplace of Elvis Presley and the blues, the American home of the International Ballet Competition, and one of the nation’s most important and ongoing battlegrounds in the fight for civil rights in the United States. I am truly appreciative of New England College for the invitation to participate in this event today and I thank you for indulging this political operative-turned professor for a few minutes.

My name is Nathan Shrader and I am the chair of the Department of Government and Politics and director of American Studies at Millsaps College here in Jackson, just a few minutes from our state capitol building. It is truly a historic moment in Mississippi politics as days ago, the new state flag was hoisted above the capitol for the first time, which won overwhelming approval by voters last November to replace the prior state flag that had been in place since the 1890s and featured the Confederate battle emblem.

I’m honored to be with you this morning, especially considering the magnitude of the events which have unfolded in American politics in a very short span of time and our need to best understand them in order to know what may come next.

As we begin thinking about the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, the severity of the challenges facing the nation, and the political upheaval of the past five years, it may make sense to turn to one of America’s most celebrated literary voices.

Maya Angelou once wrote that “I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place.” I personally love this remark because is simultaneously optimistic and forward-looking, yet firmly rooted in reality. This strikes me as a much-needed combination for all of us who are engaged in American politics right now.

Perhaps given the past five years in American politics, a quote by the American philosopher Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra is appropriate as well: "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."

Let me begin by saying that this is an extraordinary time to be studying, observing, and participating in American politics. Those of you who are current students, whether in high school or college, should know that every generation and every era witness their share of political transformations and turmoil, but I sense that what you have experienced in a very short time is basically political change and disorder on steroids.

Having grown up in politics in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I feel as if it is my obligation to tell you quite plainly that what you have witnessed in your formative years studying politics is not what those who came before you would describe as “normal” in any sense of the word. Perhaps this is the “new normal,” but it is still abnormal none the less.

I would like to briefly highlight five things to underscore this point and then have a conversation with you about what to anticipate in the First 100 Days of the Biden presidency.

First, in the past few weeks we have seen the manifestation of neo-fascism move from the shadows and fringes of American politics to openly storming the United States Capitol in an effort to brutalize America’s democratically elected political leaders, challenge the legitimacy of our nation’s institutions of government, and loudly assert that they are no longer to be marginalized by the norms of political society.

The entry for “neofascism” in Encyclopedia.com states that it is embodied by the following precepts:

1. ·       Extreme, militant nationalism
2. ·       A belief in authoritarian rather than democratic governance
3. ·       A total rejection of socialist or leftist philosophies and egalitarianism
4. ·       Appeals to those deprived of their once dominant societal status at the expense of emerging groups
5. ·       Xenophobia and hostility toward minority groups believed to have caused their social and economic decline

As I look back at my own experience on September 11, 2001 I am even more perturbed and disgusted by the events in our nation’s Capital on January 6, 2021. Over 19 years ago I was working as an intern on Capitol Hill in the office of the late US Senator Arlen Specter when al Qaeda terrorists directed two planes towards Washington. One landed in the side of the Pentagon while the other, which was aimed at the Capitol Building itself, was brought down by patriotic passengers over Shanksville, PA not far from where I grew up. Having been a witness to the terror attack on the Capitol by those terrorists 19 years ago, I never thought I would see the day when domestic terrorists actually managed to storm and hold the building while flying flags of an American president.  

Second, and somewhat linked to this, the past several weeks alone has reignited an important, yet controversial discussion about the basic tenants of “freedom of speech” and whether what is said on internet forums and social media platforms is protected despite these being non-governmental entities. Do platforms have the right to ban speech…. Do employers have the right to fire people for attending protests… Are we treating political speech differently for those on one end of the spectrum or the other? In short, are we allowed to do the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a crowded theater by spreading dangerous and false information on the internet through privately run platforms?

This is certainly now a new conundrum for us to address. On December 16, 2016 Fox Sports published a story with the headline “PHILLIES FOOD VENDOR WHO SUPPORTS WHITE NATIONALISM IS FIRED,” and was later featured on an episode of the Michael Smerconish Show on Sirius/XM about all of the issues tangled up within this situation. In short, Citizens Bank Park food vendor Emily Youcis was fired after appearing at an event sponsored by a white nationalist group which, according to Fox Sports “drew headlines after some attendees evoked Adolf Hitler's Third Reich with cries of ''Heil Trump'' and use of the Nazi salute.”

Was Youcis within her rights as a citizen to free assembly and speech, or was her activity outside of the workplace sufficient for her termination? Expect more debates on topics such as this in the coming days.

Third, we are now in a place to evaluate exactly where our two-party system stands. Unlike some other scholars and pundits, I believe that the American two-party system is immensely strong and durable, and the likelihood of a third party or multi-party system developing here is even less likely than ever given the constraints place on the political process by the parties themselves to weaken competition internally using the levers of government at the national and state levels.

Essentially, we find ourselves with a striking absence of a fiscally conservative party in the United States at this time, a center-left Democratic Party that has upended the long-standing Republican hold over suburban America, and a Republican Party which seems to exist based on a somewhat tense relationship between establishment insiders within the Beltway, corporate elites who do not actually control a voting majority within the party, and a large, but shrinking segment of the white population that is guided by grievances based on race, culture, and identity more than any other interlocking political principles.

Fourth, living in the age of the Coronavirus pandemic, Americans and voters like all of us here today are frustrated with each other and the government’s inability to control the crisis. We are collectively exhausted by 10 months of economic and social disruption that has prevented us from living our lives, visiting our friends and relatives, and losing wages and opportunities because residual impacts of the virus. Additionally, Americans are watching an ill-planned and poorly prepared vaccine distribution process that has lacked a national strategy and is instead relying upon a state-by-state approach, something that is both archaic and unnecessary given our current situation.

In Mississippi alone, our Millsaps College/Chism Strategies State of the State Survey released two weeks ago found that just over 50% of Mississippians say they will either definitely or probably get the vaccine when the time comes for them to do so. Public health challenges like this await the new president, the new congress, and all of us who are active in the political process.

Fifth and finally, we have just seen an American presidential election that saw 67% of legally eligible voters cast ballots, the highest since 1900 when nearly 74% of eligible voters participated. Ironically, the Council on Foreign Relations reported in early December that the highest share of eligible American voters to ever participate in a presidential election was 1876—a bona fide stolen election in which Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote and trailed by one vote in the Electoral College, yet still “defeated” New Yorker’s Sam Tilden—when 83% of eligible voters cast ballots. My students in a new class called Controversies in American Politics will be reading Roy Morris’ account of the election starting next week in the book Fraud of the Century.

The question on the minds of many folks like me who specialize in applied politics—the combination of scholarship and hands-on practice—is whether the United States can sustain increased participation and engagement, or if this was a one-off election because of controversial nature of the incumbent, the social and political forces at play, and expansion of much needed tools such as vote-by-mail, drop-off ballot boxes, and no excuse absentee or early voting.

In summation, tomorrow at 12pm Joseph R. Biden will take the oath of office as the nation’s 46^th president in the face of historically high voter participation that may or may not endure, a raging pandemic that is now projected to leave half a million Americans dead in another month, a structurally secure yet ideologically unstable two-party system, a robust debate over freedom of expression and the responsibilities of corporate platform owners, and the overt rather than covert manifestation of neo-fascist activity in American politics.

Biden’s ascent to the presidency has been one that has lasted 34 years from the time he first announced his candidacy in 1987 to tomorrow when he places his hand on the Bible and swears the oath of office. Biden is a lifelong moderate Democrat who was elected successfully at a time when the increasingly loud voices on the right and left seemed to make such a situation improbable. Biden was able to govern for decades in the Senate and as Vice President as a centrist institutionalist, yet credibly run on the most liberal platform of a Democratic Party nominee since George McGovern in 1972.

This quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower—whose portrait hangs behind me—seems to best summarize Biden’s governing philosophy over the years: “Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.” Can this 78-year-old man who is proud of his career in public service united a fractured nation while keeping his own party together?

To say that President-elect Biden faces a gargantuan challenge is nothing short of an understatement. Here are a few poll numbers to help illustrate the size and scope of the challenge Biden faces beginning at 12pm tomorrow:

1. ·       According to Quinnipiac, Biden takes office with 31% of American voters (mostly all Republicans) saying that he was not legitimately elected despite clear evidence that he was and lack of any proof that he wasn’t.
2. ·       37% believe there was “widespread voter fraud” in the November election, which of course is inaccurate.
3. ·       A poll released two days ago by my alma mater, Suffolk University found that a vast majority of Americans, by a lopsided measure of 70% to 17% believe that “America's democracy is weaker, not stronger, than it was four years ago.”

So, what does all of this mean for Joe Biden in his First 100 Days?

As Churchill wrote, “A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.” The tradition of measuring his success begins in the First 100 Days. With that, I would like to conclude my remarks and open the floor for your comments, thoughts, and questions about President Biden’s First 100 Days.

Thank you. 

My Reelection Announcement

 

For Immediate Release—Monday, January 11, 2021

Shrader Qualifies for Reelection to Jackson Democratic Municipal Executive Committee

 

JACKSON—Dr. Nathan R. Shrader has qualified for reelection to the City of Jackson’s Democratic Municipal Executive Committee, a position he has held since 2017. Shrader presently serves as secretary of the Municipal Executive Committee, which is charged under state law with conducting Municipal Primary Elections in Jackson and is elected by Jackson voters.

“It is an honor and a privilege to qualify for a second term on the Democratic Municipal Executive Committee. Just several days ago I was unsure about seeking reelection. The events of last Wednesday including the domestic terror attack on our government by a radical, fascist insurgency convinced me that now is not the time to recede from public service,” said Shrader. “People of conscience must instead defend our institutions and I welcome that opportunity.”

Shrader brings a wealth of experience in government, politics, and elections to the Municipal Executive Committee. He currently serves as chair of the Department of Government and Politics and director of American Studies at Millsaps College, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2014 and teaches courses on American politics with a focus on elections and political parties. Shrader earlier worked as Legislative Aide and Deputy Director of Communications for Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll of Pennsylvania, Legislative Aide in the Virginia General Assembly, and as a Research Assistant at Temple University’s Center on Regional Politics and Institute for Public Affairs. He earned a BA from Thiel College in 2003, an MS from Suffolk University in 2007, and a PhD from Temple University in 2015.

Shrader resides in Precinct 34 in Northeast Jackson and was elected as a delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention for Joe Biden in Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes portions of the City of Jackson. He is also the Vice Chair of the Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee, a member of the Mississippi Democratic State Executive Committee representing the 3rd Congressional District, and has been Precinct Captain since 2014.

Jackson’s Municipal Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

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So You Want to Run for the School Board? A Top 10 List for 2021

I am very excited to see so much interest springing upon social media over school board elections, which take place in a majority of states this year. Local Facebook pages in my home town of North Huntingdon, PA have been alive with chatter of people—many seemingly new to politics—who are exploring runs for the local school board on the heels of a contentious year with zealot board member slamming minorities and Democrats and a truly mystifying parent-led protest to send everyone back to school in person, public health consequences be damned.

It is extremely important for people to run for school board positions and do it the right way.  Personally, I have volunteered on several school board campaigns in the Norwin School District in Pennsylvania during my time as a student there, written a PhD dissertation on school board politics at Temple University, worked in state and local government in two states, taught electoral and local politics at the college level, and worked on almost 50 political campaigns in different capacities from consultant to manager to field director to grassroots volunteer.

With that said, I have compiled a list of the top ten most important things anyone who wants to run for a position on their local school board should consider before deciding whether to run. This list is not in any particular order and is built around my own experience and insights from dozens and dozens of local election campaigns. Some of the items here may vary from state-to-state while others have appointed boards in certain types of districts.

1—A Base. I’m not just referring to your friends and family, but rather about being cognizant of where your core supporters will come from: the small business community, political activists, party officials and leaders, labor unions, veterans’ groups, church groups, firefighters, community organizations, and the like. These are the people you know are waking up on primary election day with a plan to vote for you and have already activated their own networks of friends and contacts to do the same. People who run and lose tend to not have a well-defined base and don’t know how to build one. Do this now!

2—Money. Even local campaigns aren’t run on the cheap, at least not the good ones! Even though the school board is a very localized office, it still costs money to run a real campaign as expenditures add up: food for your volunteers, money for printing, handouts and palm cards, trinkets, paying poll workers on Election Day, renting a facility to hold a fundraiser, and more. Many first-time candidates are encouraged by others to spend money on yard signs, which are very expensive. Yard signs don’t vote and are a colossal waste of resources that could go into other forms of voter contact that actually reach people. Get some signs, but don’t put them anywhere but in actual yards. Don’t go crazy here. You need that money for actual voter contact.

3—Data. You need to be able to get your hands of voter lists that are broken up by precinct with the names and addresses of voters (at a minimum). Candidates should be able to buy a basic digital copy of this from their county or pay for hard copies. Check out how this works where you live before getting too far along. The more advanced and useful data sets can be purchased from vendors and includes phone numbers, email addresses, age and race information, party identification (when applicable), and voter frequency data. This is the most important part because it allows you to focus on the people who are high-turnout voters in “off-year” elections when turnout tends to be the lowest. You can’t do this effectively without this data as it enables micro-targeting. A benefit of running as a “ticket” or team is that the team can invest in this instead of just one of you doing so.

4—Mail. It may seem antiquated, but direct mail that arrives at the homes of voters still works best, especially in low-turnout local election contests. Think about who turns out for these elections: older voters and those who follow politics most closely. These are the people that read their mail every day when it arrives and are not casual voters like those who show up in a presidential year. If this is anything like most off-year, local elections turnout will be alarmingly low, so just prepare yourself for that disappointment now. Doing professionally produced campaign mail frees up your volunteers for other work so they aren’t just stuffing envelopes and are actually out talking to voters directly.

5—Volunteers. Start recruiting now for folks to knock doors, write postcards to friends and neighbors, help raise money, and put signs in their yards. Build a good list in Excel: names, contact information, home precinct, specific interests in what they want to do, etc. Also, you’ll want to use them to work outside at polling places on Election Day. The main lesson here is that it’s usually not good to treat your volunteer base as donors, but in some cases local elections require that. Here’s the disappointing part: for about every ten people who say they will help you can count on about two of them to follow through, but that matters a great deal for getting the work done and you’ll quickly learn who you can count on!

6—Training. Your volunteers need to be well trained on a) your own bio, b) the reasons you are running, and c) a 20-30 second elevator pitch when they are talking to voters as to why they should support you. Using volunteer labor without training them first is definitely a disaster waiting to happen. They’ll also need a tutorial on door knocking, how to start conversations, where to place and where not to place palm cards, and more. As for poll workers, keep close track of covering all shifts at all precincts for Election Day, but remember that 99% of the work gets done before Election Day if you want to be successful.

7—Know the Rules. Get your petitions and statements of candidacy done correctly so you don’t get removed from the ballot. This is the single most important part of the entire process. Talk to people who know what they are doing here: election lawyers, candidates who have run and won in the past, and county party leaders.

8—Precinct Captains. You’ll need at least one per precinct to keep their eyes and ears on the ground in their neighborhood for you. This should be someone who knows the people around them, wants to help by volunteering (phone banks, doors, postcards) or donating, and can be involved whenever you are campaigning in their precinct. Get a good precinct map your entire district so you can visualize “who you have” in those places as your campaign’s core leaders. These folks are volunteers, but they are the next level up: they are your go-to people in each precinct and they are the ones you can most count on for help and information.

9—Party People. The actual, official party structures in many counties seem to have withered over time, but each political party tends to at least have a minimum number of seats for “official” Democratic and Republican committee people. For example, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania the Democratic County Committee has two seats per precinct for Party Committee people while I believe the GOP County Committee has a two seat minimum per precinct, but has been allowed to add seats per precincts based on positive party performance. You can get a list of currently elected committee people for each party from most County Election Commissions, but you may want to contact the county party chairs as they are permitted to fill vacancies with appointments which may not be kept on file.

Meanwhile, in Hinds County, Mississippi the county parties have 30 members chosen countywide by supervisor district within each county. The bottom line is that you need to reach out to these folks because they tend to be more politically active and experienced than the rank and file voter or even the most excited volunteer. In states like this you need to contact the designated county party chairs to get their committee lists, should they choose to provide them.

10—Campaign Veterans. This may seem overly simplistic, but talk to people who have done this before including those who have run successfully and unsuccessfully for the school board, people who have run campaigns, and those who have been the most deeply involved in races for positions like county commissioner, county offices, supervisors and commissioners, council and alderman, tax collector, and other localized positions. They’ve been through it and can tell you what worked best for them and which strategies did not. Likewise, they are inevitably going to have a mental, digital, or physical rolodex of people who helped them—or in some cases subverted their campaign efforts—and they will probably be more than happy to share that information.

Lastly, there are some books that can help. The first three are usually assigned in my Campaigns and Elections class at Millsaps College while the last one about school boards helped me as I was conceptualizing my dissertation on school board politics:

All Politics is Local and Other Rules of the Game by Speaker Tip O’Neill (1993): https://www.amazon.com/All-Politics-Local-Other-Rules/dp/0812922972/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=all+politics+is+local&qid=1609428388&sr=8-3

The Campaign Manager: Running and Winning Local Elections by Catherine Shaw (6^th Ed, 2018): https://www.amazon.com/Campaign-Manager-Running-Winning-Elections/dp/0813350794/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=campaign+manager&qid=1609428438&sr=8-1

Get Out The Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout by Donald Green and Alan Gerber (4^th Ed, 2019): https://www.amazon.com/Get-Out-Vote-Increase-Turnout/dp/0815736932/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=get+out+the+vote&qid=1609428504&sr=8-1

Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America's School Districts (2005) by Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer: https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Thousand-Democracies-Districts-Government/dp/1589010760/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=10000+democracies&qid=1609428608&sr=8-1

Nathan R. Shrader can be reached at DoctorShrader@gmail.com