Study Group: Disrupting the Teams: Are the GOP and DNC Still Relevant?

Both the Democratic and Republican parties are in turmoil, a growing number of democrats, independents and republicans say the party institution is irrelevant. Just four years ago a post-election autopsy suggested the GOP needed to be more inclusive to women and minorities in order to survive given the country’s demographic changes, a plan Donald Trump completely disrupted. Increasingly groups outside of the political parties are spending big dollars to impact elections in a way that can over shadow the parties themselves. And was the impact of the Third Party vote in states like Wisconsin and Michigan the most important cautionary tale for the Democrats? Exit polling has shown that in those key states, despite agreeing with Hillary Clinton on the issues, the number of people — particularly millenials of color — who expressed their anger by voting third party or not voting could have made the difference in electing Clinton.

Can the democratic party change and adapt to a new paradigm for engaging with the new activist organizations that are forming in response to Trump in order to build a diverse winning coalition? Join IOP Fall Residential Fellow Karen Finney with E.J. Dionne (Columnist for The Washington Post, Author of One Nation After Trump) for a discussion on the issue on Thursday, October 26th at 4:15 pm in FDR (Littauer 163).