Below is a transcript of our conversation with CMU Professor Emeritus of Political Science James Hill:
David Nicholas:
I’m David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Can ordinary people bring about extraordinary change when it comes to government and political institutions? CMU Professor Emeritus of Political Science James Hill has addressed the question in a trilogy of novels, with a twist. His focal character is a young Native American woman from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is an environmental activist who gets elected to Congress and uncovers the mystery of contamination in Lake Superior. Her story could be your story, or mine, as we see ourselves against the backdrop of our current political narrative.
Was there a tie in to the real players? It didn’t take long after 2020 and dust settling that we were projecting a possible rematch for 2024. Did that aspect frame, at all, your storytelling here?
James Hill:
From 2016 to 2020, we saw a lot of the political norms and institutions stressed to such a point that it occurred to me that what I wanted to talk about, the environment, the Great Lakes and (and) Native American issues and tribal casinos and things like that, all my research interests, I thought what’s more, is that what we’re seeing is a true testing of our democratic institutions. And so, I looked ahead to 2024 and thought, you know what? We may have another testing along those lines, the possibility that the Electoral College could be the major decider in this situation. So that strung together led me to believe that, well, OK, 2024 is going to be a watershed moment. We need to do is talk about the formal and informal rules of political engagement and the ability of our democratic institutions to adapt to these changing factors. So the long and short of it is, yes, I think from 2016 to 2020, it came to my mind that my story, although the background of it, remained the, my story needed to talk about the political change that our country has undergone and the political change that we’re going to face in the future, in light of the these changing norms and (and) I think changing institutions.
DN:
How much of the story pivots around the extraordinary circumstances of the outcome and the aftermath of 2020? Understand your arc going from 2016 forward but. Because there is that asterisk of the run up to the result, (the) aftermath. Did that reshape what would have been even the story you envision coming forward from 2016?
JH:
A concern of mine for the longest period of time has been the Electoral College. It is an, I think, an ancient and an unnecessary check on the popular vote. So even when I began thinking about this book, and these books, I was worried about the Electoral College and how it might change or (or) warp public will. So, I thought that 2024 would be another test of this, that it was possible that the (the) blue wall of the Electoral College, that the Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania states would decide the election rather than the rest of the (the) country. And indeed, it did. Had Kamela Harris won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, she would be president despite the popular vote or despite anything else, and that just seems so archaic. I, (I) use these books…In the first book was a focus on the Electoral College. It was a hope that people would look, read that first book and recognize the frailties of it. The second book was the Saving Gitche Gumee was focused on how Congress will handle the situation, how you handle it and the third was the personal journey, the spiritual and personal journey of the person who’s going through this process of trying to save Gitche Gumee. So, I have seen this arc of political change and I worry to great, a great extent, how well our institutions will be able to withstand the type of fury that seems to be focused on governmental institutions and indeed governing at all.
DN:
The factual story that Jim Hills fictional character discovers next time on Central Focus.
This post was originally published on here
