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Election expert calls 2016 presidential race ‘a low point’ in the nation’s political history

Photo of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Bill Crotty, pro­fessor emer­itus of polit­ical sci­ence and an expert in Amer­ican polit­ical par­ties and elec­tions, says that this elec­tion is not without prece­dent.

The 2016 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion has been char­ac­ter­ized by its unique­ness both in can­di­dates and in the deep divide among likely voters. But Bill Crotty, pro­fessor emer­itus of polit­ical sci­ence and an expert in Amer­ican polit­ical par­ties and elec­tions, says that this elec­tion is not without prece­dent. “This is not the worst of times,” he explains, “but it is a low point in a country with a his­tory of polit­ical low points.”

In this Q&A, Crotty talks about the frac­tious nature of the nation’s polit­ical cli­mate, noting that the “civil war” within the Repub­lican Party “has been fes­tering for years.” But, he says, the Demo­c­ratic Party, too, “has prob­lems and they are just begin­ning to surface.”

Read the story at news@Northeastern.

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