Skip to content
GIVING DAY is April 11! Starting now, you can support CSSH students and programs with a $5+ gift to any of our funds.
Apply
Stories

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.

More Stories

Photo of the Capitol Building at night

High stakes for politics, SCOTUS in 2018

01.04.2018
Photo of the crashed truck that was used in the October 31st attack in Manhattan.

Weaponizing Language: How the meaning of “allahu akbar” has been distorted

11.08.2017
Northeastern logo

Why I love studying Spanish

05.29.20
Uncategorized