Politics Corner 3/24/2017

by Duane Paul Murphy

This fall, the Politics Department here at Catholic University of America will be offering a new course for politics majors, minors, and other students who need social science credits. The course will be titled “Politics in the Age of Trump”, which will fulfill the American Politics sub-concentration within the politics department. The course will contain contemporary data analysis and historical studies regarding the rise of Donald Trump from celebrity businessman to President of the United States. “The class is something I’ve been considering since the November election,” said Matthew Green, an associate professor of the university’s Politics Department and fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies who will be the course’s instructor. “Trump’s election was so surprising to so many people, especially given how unconventional his candidacy was, that it made sense to offer a course that would focus on the “how” and “why” it happened.  An important theme of the class will be how Trump’s emergence brought out older elements of American political culture that many thought were a thing of the past, like populism, authoritarianism, and xenophobia.”