With President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address still two weeks away on Feb. 2, Georgetown students had the opportunity to voice their concerns about the condition of our nation at Georgetown’s second annual “Real State of the Union,” hosted by the Atlantic Monthly Group.
In Gaston Hall on Tuesday evening, students quizzed Atlantic correspondents Stephen Cohen, James Fallows, William Powers and Jonathan Rauch on their forecasts of U.S. domestic and foreign issues in the upcoming presidential term.
Both students and speakers exhibited a critical attitude toward the U.S.’s current circumstances. Cohen, Fallows and Rauch offered their analysis on a range of topics including Bush’s inability to create more jobs and competing values in U.S.-Middle East relations.
In response to Gerard Alolod’s (SFS ‘05) question regarding what the population’s college-age sector could expect from the next four years, the panelists predicted a grim future. Cohen expects a possible economic crisis.
“Either way you look at it, pretty soon, the middle class will be broken and fractured,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how high imports or exports are; if we keep our current domestic economic policies in place, something disastrous may occur.”
Fallows warned of the potential threat from the possible existence of post-Cold War “loose nukes.” Rauch attacked both Democratic and Republican parties for practicing partisan politics despite an increasingly centrist electorate. Powers discussed the means by which the American public obtains the news. Aside from mainstream news channels, he emphasized the increasing number of “viewing niches,” including MSNBC, CNN and FOX News.
Several students expressed concern over the prospect of a wartime draft. Fallows quickly responded that a draft is not something about which students should worry.
“Unless Canada and Mexico decided to simultaneously invade the U.S. while the war in Iraq is ongoing, no candidate would ever decide to reinstate a draft because it would make him very unpopular,” he said.
After the question and answer session, President John DeGioia said he was impressed by the intellectual caliber of the questions posed by the students.
“I believe that our students distinguished themselves in an exemplary way this evening,” he said.
Fallows also praised students for their command of the issues.
“The questions were clever and went below the surface of what we were saying,” he said.
Some spectators, however, were disappointed with the points discussed in the panel’s presentation. Students in the audience expressed mixed views about the depth and range of the material covered by the speakers.
Sean Boocock (CAS ‘08) said he hoped to identify more proactive opinions and sharper stances during each of the panelists’ speeches.
“It felt like someone had muzzled the speakers before the debate and forgotten to take them off for the ensuing discussion,” he said.
Alolod added that the discussion could have been fleshed out to reveal what the speakers’ conclusions about the real state of the union implied for college students.
“The issues were quite pertinent, although there could have been more substantial insight on the necessary involvement of America’s young adults,” he said.
Michele Parvensky (CAS ‘07) said she wanted the panel to tackle the issues currently challenging the adminstration.
“I was hoping that they would address some of the things that I think are important that I know are not going to be addressed by Bush in his State of the Union-specifically the plight of the poor and economic justice issues, because these are things that the administration completey glosses over,” she said.
