The Republican Party and Its Future
The Republican Party and Its Future
Capstone Seminar
PPS 490S.05
Spring 2018
1:25 -2:40 Tuesday/Thursday.
Terry Sanford Building, Room 224
Marty Morris, JD
Office Hours: By appointment
Overview: The many governments within the United States, from local precincts to Capitol Hill, are supported by the two-party system. Historically, the parties have worked against each other, attempting to put their own candidates into office in order to gain power over public policy. The cooperation within each party structure is often loose and self-serving. This course looks at the Republican Party, its policies and the often surprising politics behind those policies.
Most political leaders, certainly at the highest levels, have (at least should have) one foot in politics and one in policy.
Whether a student wants to become directly involved in politics or not, whether one considers himself/herself a Republican or not, an understanding of what is going on within the Republican Party will help any civic minded person make better decisions in his or her public life.
Students will get hands on experience crafting policy - while experiencing the effects that political pressure has on policy-making. I encourage students to take an active role in our public policy debates. Stories will provide insight on the challenges of maintaining the balance between party principles and finding a compromise on an issue.
My written assignments are designed to show various political "tools" to students. At times, unfortunately, I have seen these "tools" dictate policy when a candidate or office holder possesses a weak policy background or is not curious enough to drill down on issues. For decades I used all these so called "tools" as a campaign manager or Senate Chief of Staff.
This class will also take a critical look at the Republican Party. Why didn't the Republican House and Senate Leadership act in a unified, coordinated effort during the Obama era? On the other hand, why couldn't the re-elected President Obama garner more than very limited Republican support on issues like the Budget, Immigration, Gun Control, Free Trade Agreements, the Iranian Nuclear Agreement or Tax Reform.
The Republican Party is clearly in an identity crisis period, so what does this mean for us all?
As we begin this class in 2018, Donald Trump will be entering his second year as President of the United States, is he a “populist” Republican? At the same time the “leadership” of Congress remains somewhat in the hands of "establishment Republicans," does this portend a permanent shift in GOP ideology towards populism or a continuing ideological struggle?
After having spent 35 years in Republican policy/politics, the instructor's intent is to give the students an unvarnished view of today's Republican Party and the overall US policy. Working together, this class has an objective of mapping out an appropriate and constructive role for the GOP to play in the future of American politics.
It is my hope that many of my students, after taking this class, will see themselves as candidates for high office - in the not so distant future.
Course Structure: Regular class meetings are primarily in seminar format, with a strong emphasis on class discussion. Current events will sometimes be used to kick off class discussions.
Grades:30% Class contribution (class discussion)
10% Policy Memo and Brief
10% Benchmark Survey
10% Direct Mail Letter
10% TV Commercial
10% Joint Editorial (What should GOP stand for and do?)
20% Individual "Dear Colleague" Letter
Course Materials: All reading material will be made available online through Sakai or handed out in class. For this 2018 Spring Class I have significantly cut the reading assignments I have given to previous classes, I expect all students to have read this truncated material before each class session! Please!
Course Requirements:
*Punctual attendance to all classes is expected.
*However, you do not need an excuse for missing class - but you will obviously lose any class contribution points you might have earned during that/those particular class sessions.
*Please finish each reading assignment prior to class. Again I have CUT a great deal of the assigned readings from previous terms to make this requirement as easy as possible! So - Please prepare yourself to show up to each class ready for a vigorous discussion.
*Come to each class ready to offer one question related to the readings or a current event that you feel the class should discuss. Simply speak up as we begin class if you are so moved.
*Turn in the assignments on time.
*The use of personal electronic devises during class is prohibited, unless the instructor gives his approval during that particular class.
*All written assignment shall be turned in via hard copy. PLEASE staple all pages together. Please do not write on both sides of a piece of paper you turn in to be graded.
Always sit in your assigned seat. Please.
Academic Integrity: Student are expected to adhere to the Duke Community Standard.
Course Outline:
Class 1 - January 11, Introduction and overview of the course and review the syllabus.
Hand out “GOP Pictures” for Class 3 discussion. Get your assigned GOP operative.
Class 2 - January 16, History of the Political Parties and GOP factions before and after Trump’s election: The Logic of American Politics, Chapter 12 pp. 536 to 552 & 559 to 561. “Koch network ramps up political spending while trying to push Trump team.” Politico, 6-24-17, 4 pages. “Trump is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’,” Politico, 6-24-17, 7pages.
Class 3 - January 18, Fifteen Pictures Report: For this class, you have been on January 11th assigned one of fifteen pictures. Research your person in the picture so that you can deliver a 4 minute summary on your assigned person. Some items you might consider for each person:
Give a short biography, assuming your classmates have not heard of your subject.
What impact did he/she have on the Republican Party and/or the Nation/the World?
Was the impact positive, negative, a combination or to hard to call?
What vehicle did your subject use to make their impact … legislation, media, organization etc. — Those are just suggestions. You are free to approach your subject anyway you like, however keep in mind that you are responsible for 1/15th of our next class as we look into the history of the GOP.
It is my hope that as each of us listen to each other, we make several useful discoveries that we might use as we proceed through the semester and that we also begin to form a common base of understanding for our future conversations.
Class 4- January 23, Outside Groups: Three Cheers for Citizens United, by Jack Shafer, 8-25-15, 4 pages. The Deregulated Campaign, by Eliza Carney of CQ, 9-19-11, 6 pages. GOP hopefuls’ new must-have: Megadonors, by Severus and Robillard, Politico 10-08-17, 5 pages. Trump super PAC launches $100 million blitz, by Alex Isenstadt, 11-2-17, 5 pages. Get your outside group in class for use during the next two classes.
Class 5 - January 25, Outside Groups - Question the "Mayor": No reading assignment. Independent research required. See section on graded assignments for more information.
Class 6 - January 30, Outside Groups - Brief the "Mayor": No reading assignment, Independent research required. See section on graded assignments.
January 30 - We will have a class dinner at TBA, this is not required, but simply for enjoyment and to get to know each other.
Class 7 - February 1, The Constitution and the GOP: The Atlantic, "America's Fragile Constitution," by Yoni Appelbaum, October 2015. Financial Times, "Donald Trump embodies how great republics meet their end," by Martin Wolf, 3-1-16;The Party is Over, Chapter 3 pp. 44 to 54.
Class 8 - February 6, Direct Mail: In this class we will discuss the oversized impact that direct mail has on politics and policy. Students will be assigned to write a direct mail piece that will be due on 2-15. Please read before this class: Direct Mail in the Digital Age pp 59 to 70 and pp. 79 to 81; The Political Campaign Desk Reference, pp. 85 to 99 and pp. 159 to 165 and pp 69 to 70. Reference: Letter to Pam Morris from Speaker Paul Ryan & Letter to Martin Morris from Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle** Your assignment will be gone over in class and you can see more detail below. Note, the readings are not a high level study of the art - utilize the time you have with me to gain as much knowledge as you can, so that you can write a solid direct mail letter.
Class 9 - February 8, Taxes and the Budget: Please read before class: The New York Times, 3-31-13, "A Sustainable Budget Should Endure Any Storm," by Gregory Mankiw, appx. 2 pages; Essentials of Economics, "The Laffer Curve and Supply-Side Economics," by Mankiw, pp. 170 to 171; Trump’s tax cut will put America back on a path to growth, by Arthur Laffer, FTimes, 10-30-17; US Economy: The productivity puzzle, by Robin Harding, June 29th 2014, "The Financial Times, 5 pages; Not your father’s economy, Politico, by White & Lorenzo, 8-11-17, 5 pages. Carolina at Carolina night!
Class 10 - February 13, The Media: John Burness will lead the class discussion and readings are mostly TBA and probably handed out on the 8th in hard copy. Please do read: “Political campaigns prep for battle with hackers,” by Strauss and Bland, Politico, 9-19-17; Young subscribers flock to old media, by Jason Schwartz, Politico, 10-21-17.
Class 11 - February 15, Pizza - Ayn - Huey: In this class you will receive a short overview on how to start/run a restaurant in Maryland/North Carolina. We will have Pizza delivered for the class to enjoy during our meeting. We will turn to party philosophies and discuss their impact on the small business owner - the core of establishment Republicans. We will watch a short video of Ayn Rand explaining her philosophy, we will also be entertained by Huey Long and his famous "Share the Wealth" speech. Before class please read: Wikipedia's summary of "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand the first 5 pages; The Ayn Rand Institute, "A Brief Biography of Ayn Rand," 3 pages; The Herald-Sun, Durham, North Carolina, "Will fast-food protests spur higher wages?," by Sharon Cohen of AP, 8-6-13; Politico, "The Second Job You Don't Know You Have," by C. Lambert, May 19, 2015, The Single Payer Insanity, by Bill Scher, Politico, 9-12-17. River Road Pizza Balance Sheet -- bring to class!
Class 12 - February 20, Polling: During this class you will be get the assignment of writing your own Benchmark survey due on March 6th. Please read before class: Political Polling, by J. Stonecash, Ch 4 pages 27 to 59 plus pages 162 to 165; The Week, "The problem with polls," 4-15-16; What’s the matter with the polls? by Steven Shepard, Politico, 11-3-16. Note: during our “gun” class we will use polling in class to wrestle with the issue, which I hope helps you with this assignment.
Class 13- February 22,- Guns: Look through - "Polling report.com" I put in Sakai - the "gun" section and note how Republicans and Democrats feel about the various gun questions. Also added is a Gallup selection of gun questions. These might also help your thinking as you formulate your questions for your polling assignment due on March 6th. Please read the following before class: A History of Knowledge, by Charles Van Doreen, 1981, page 266 to269; rage of white men, CNN, by Nazareth Moran, October 4, 2017; USAToday, "Georgia town not alone in using gun law as 'deterrent,'" by Larry Copeland; New York Times, "Upstart Group Pushes Harder Than NRA," by Jennifer Steinhauer, 4-4-13; New York Times, "Rewrite The Second Amendment," by Zachary Elkins, 4-5-13;
Class 14 - February 27, Foreign Policy - Dan Diller: Dan Diller will lead our class and readings are TBA.
Class 15 - March 1, Trade: In class we will looking at many polling question within the “Polling Report” I placed on Sakai for you. Please pleaseplease read: The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, by Klein & Bauman, Chapters 7,8,9,10 and 11; Revoking trade deals will not help American middle class, by Lawrence Summers, FT, 2/5/17; Japan exasperated by Trump’s trade policies, Politico, by Adam Behsudi, 10-15-17.
Class 16 - March 6 - Microeconomics: for this class we will be joined by Bill Stokes, the readings are TBA and will probably be handed out to you in hard copy a few days before class. Bill will help us see what economically the average America is faced with in today's economy and we will discuss the implications. You should try in class to propound workable policies that our politicians can get behind.
Class 17 - March 8, NO CLASS - SPRING BREAK
Class 18 - March 20, TV Commercials: This class session will be devoted to showing you how to write a TV script. I will then ask you to write 2 scripts for two TV spot for yourself (you are the candidate). The scripts will be presented by each student in class on April 5 and turned in for grading at the end of that class. For more assignment details, see below. Before this class meets please read: The Political Campaign Desk Reference, by Michael McNamara, pp. 99 to 102 and pp. 175 to 182; The Washington Post, 6-20-13, by Farhan Manjoo, "Tuning viewers into a new way to watch," appx. two pages; Politico, "The television election," by S. Shepard, 7-27-15; Politico, "Can Congressmen Change Your Mind?" by Lazer and Neblo, 4-19-15; Financial Times, "Advertising: TV fights the future," by Garrahan, 5-20-16.
Class 19 - March 22, Neil Brown of KKR: Neil will lead our class he is coming in from NY. If there is any reading, I will get it to you later in consultation with Neil Brown.
Class 20 - March 27, Paul Kong Lobbyist: This class will be led by Paul Kong - amongst several jobs, Paul served as a senior lobbyist for the US Chamber of Commerce. Please read: Politico, "Lockheed's top government affairs official not registered as lobbyist," by Wright and Herb, 7-3-16; Politico, "The lobbying reform that enriched Congress," by Arnsdorf, 7-3-16.
Class 21 - March 29, Jobs: Rise of the Robots, by Martin Ford, pp. ix to xviii and 83 to 86; The Wall Street Journal, "Productivity Fall Imperils Growth," by Ben Leubsdorf, 8-10-16; Financial Times, "US economy: Decline of the start-up nation," by Fleming, 8-4-16; Washington Post, "Bring back the apprentice," by Eizenstat and Lerman, 5-5-13; Financial Times, Bill Gates calls for income tax on robots, by Richard Waters, 2/20/17; Financial Times, Donald Trump’s tariffs would do little for American workers,” by Gillian Tett, 7/2/17.
Class 22 - April 3, Defense: Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Super Weapons and Global Dominion, by Alfred McCoy, 11-8-12; Politico, "Arms race goes hypersonic," by Ewing 8-11-15; Politico, "McCain's reelection pivot: Bring home the bucks," by Herb and O'Brien, 10-16-16; DoD Buzz, Pentagon Gives Lockheed Billions to Keep Working on F-35s, by Oriana Pawlyk, 7-7-17.
Class 23 - April 5, TV presentations: Your TV Scripts are due today for 10% of your grade. Please come prepared to share your thinking on your scripts with the class. Part of your grade is how you make this presentation to others - sell it. Please bring a Hard Copy of both your scripts for the whole class and myself. Staple them together if more than one page!! Do not write on both sides of a page.
Class 24- April 10, True Believers: We will begin class by watching a 10 minute video to help discussion, please read: The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer, pp. 51-53; Financial Times, "How Trump gave a voice to unheard America," by Sevastopulo, 10-27-16, Wikipedia, "American Exceptionalism, 1 page; The Daily Beast, "The American Prophet Who Predicted Trump," by Shachtman, 4-16-16.
Class 25 - April 12, The End of Power?: Before class please read The Party of Lincoln is Now the Party of Trump, by Thomas Edsall, NYTimes, 10-26-17; Financial Times, The empty shell of America’s two party system, by Edward Luce, 9-13-17; Bannon promises ‘season of war’ against McConnell, GOP establishment, Politico, by Restuccia, 10-14-17. The New York Times, "The Fragmented Society, David Brooks, 5-20-16; The Japan Times, "The future of globalism stands at a crossroads," by Fukukawa, 8-3-16.
Class 26 - April 17, No eggheads, but time to start thinking?: The Party is Over, Chapter 9, pp. 144 to 164; The Washington Post, 10-14-13, by Robert J. Samuelson, "Witnessing a turning point," one page; Politico, Moore’s win spells trouble for GOP establishment in 2018, by Isenstadt, 9-27-17; The Week, Book review: Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, by Tetlock and Gardner; Post-Tribune, "Ritter: Still lamenting the void left by Lugar's exit," by Ritter, 4-1-16.
Class 27 - April 19, For this class we will discuss two subjects ... Compromise/Civility and also The Millennials: For this final class your reading has been truncated to just a few paragraphs from the many pieces below - we will read each in class and discuss …. I will provide a hard copy of each!: Financial Times, "America needs a bipartisan approach for economic recovery," by Eric Cantor, 10-18-16; Richard G Lugar address to the Seventh Circuit Bar Association 5-6-13; Richard G Lugar speech to the 2015 Edgar Fellows Program, 8-4-15; Financial Times, "America is more racially divided than it has been in decades," by Anderson, 8-2-16; Financial Times, "Unhappy Millennials want what youngsters have always wanted," by Kaupp-Roberts, 5-25-16; The Selfie Vote, pp.211 to 222 by Kristen Solti Anderson; New York Times, "Will the Left Survive Millennials," by Shriver, 9-23-16; Wall Street Journal, "Summer Jobs for the Guilty Generation," by Kessler, 7-9-13; New York Times, "Smartphone Era Politics," by Cohen, 2-23-16; Financial Times Magazine, "The age of vitriol: Edward Luce on US politics and social media, by Edward Luce, 11-4-16.
Class 28 - April 24, Final Class at Devine's: Turn in your final papers and enjoy lunch.
NOTE: Many of our guest speakers travel by air to be with us, so we must be prepared for them to have to cancel last minute. In that event I will pick a subject from one of my past classes on: Religion, Immigration or a mock campaign meeting.
More detail on the Graded Class Assignments: Each assignment will also be gone over in detail in class.
30% Class Contribution. Obviously this class is a seminar (S) and will be graded as such, you are required to join class discussions when in seminar format. Grades will include initiating and joining in class discussion. Come to each class ready to offer one question related to the readings or current events that you feel the class should discuss. Though grading class contribution must be subjective, this instructor will, to some degree, use the following rubric in class: the number of times you contributed (spoke) in class, the relevance of the comments, if a sound argument is being made, if you respect differing points of view and if and how you respond to the position of other students. If you presented a question of some merit for the class, that will also earn credit. I would appreciate your finding a seat you like in the first class and then sticking with it - that makes grading class contribution easier for the instructor. Depending on how many students we have, we will probably move your assigned seats around during the term to give us all a different perspective.