Study Group: The Daggers Come Out

Freitag 28.02.20 - 18:45 Uhr

Beschreibung

Discussion with Scott Stelle and Laurence Stallings, d.a.i. Tübingen. Our point of departure this quarter is the formal impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump for his attack on the electoral process. You can’t actually have free and fair elections if the President is using his office to criminally prosecute his political rivals, which is what the evidence suggests he was doing. Rather than „Congress vs the White House,“ this hyperpartisan inquiry will be fought more between Democrats and
Republicans throughout the separate branches of government. Also, since the Democrats know they probably won‘t have enough votes in the Senate, their ultimate aim is to win in the court of public opinion on election day. However, that will be a challenge because news is consumed differently from the time of Watergate. Political polarization is now reflected in the media itself, which means “truth” is all about the narrative or story-telling. We shall simultaneously turn out attention to foreign policy. Trump‘s abandonment of Kurds in Syria is commonly thought to harm the US and help Russia. Well, neo-isolationists and anti-war activists don‘t think so. Indeed, the notion of an expansionist Russia seems to be as exaggerated
as crediting Russia for Trump‘s electoral victory. Many Americans are starting to wonder how NATO‘s eastward expansion after the Cold War might have contributed to today‘s heightened geopolitical tensions and to question America‘s never-ending war on terror. If the U.S. were to pull out of the Middle East, who would fill the political vacuum? We’re looking forward to an exciting quarter and interesting discussions. Come one, come all…

• In English
• Location: Ann Arbor
• Admission: free
• Further dates: Fr. 27.3.

Veranstaltungsort