Political Science Professor on the election

Political Science Professor Donald Douglas shared his thoughts on the upcoming election in an interview on Saturday, Oct. 19.

“Hillary Clinton will almost certainly win in November,” Douglas said.

Donald Trump’s low chance of success, Douglas said, is due to self-inflicted damage accumulated on the campaign trail.

Douglas said, “His bombastic personality makes it easy for his political opponents to attack him.”

Another reason why Douglas believes Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent, will win is because of an unprecedented media bias in favor of Clinton and against Trump.

Douglas said, “While there has always been bias in the media, and although the media has been traditionally leftist, liberal and progressive, something is different this time around.”

He brought up the New York Times’ statement that the newspaper has “no obligation to treat Donald Trump fairly.”

Douglas noted even during the most contentious, heated months of the George W. Bush administration, “liberal media outlets” treated the president with fairness and respect. Neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney were forced to endure the type of relentless attacks Trump faces on a regular basis, Douglas said.

Douglas pointed to media coverage of the Clinton Foundation scandal as an example of how media bias shaped public opinion.

Few major media outlets devoted significant time to covering the foundation’s “extreme corruption and pay-for-play,” even though the Foundation’s cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other repressive regimes may “endanger our strategic interests,” Douglas added.

Douglas laments the “divisive, mudslinging rhetoric” on both sides, as well as from major media outlets, for creating an atmosphere of “tribalism,” and an “us against them” mentality that poisons public discourse, dividing the American people against each other.

On the subject of foreign policy, Douglas’ area of expertise, he also attacked major media outlets for their biased coverage of Trump’s foreign-policy proposals.

“The idea that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is obsolete,” something Trump has claimed, “is not a fringe conspiracy theory. Mainstream political scientists have been debating this issue for years.”

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