America’s National 2024 Elections: Looking Back, Looking Forward [] LIFELONG LEARNING

America’s National 2024 Elections:
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Instructor: Paul Gardner

January 6, 8 | 1-3 p.m.

Please join me for conversations about two big topics. I write this description after three extraordinary weeks in American politics, which included an assassination attempt on Former President Trump and President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic Party candidate. At this moment, it appears likely that Vice President Kamala Harris will be the Democratic Party nominee. 

When we meet on January 6, coincidentally and concurrently with America’s new Congress certifying the outcome of the Presidential election, we will analyze the whats and the whys of the 2024 Presidential and Congressional election results. Looking backward is usually easier than looking forward.

However, there is the question: What did the election results teach us about America? Included in our future-focused reflection will be comparing America’s election results to the outcomes in other countries. We will tackle this topic on January 8. We will hold both discussions in the spirit of civility and openness to the opinions of others.

Paul Gardner taught Politics to college students for 40 years. He retired in 2018 after 33 years at Luther College, a liberal arts school in northeast Iowa. Among his favorite teaching assignments was a quadrennial seminar on the topic of this course. The first line of each syllabus was always, “This is the most critical election of our lifetime. History has finally caught up with his hyperbole.” Since retirement, he has received three Fulbright awards to teach about American elections in Romania.