{"id":5643,"date":"2016-11-01T14:26:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T18:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=5643"},"modified":"2020-08-07T16:43:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T20:43:58","slug":"why-college-students-votes-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2016\/11\/01\/why-college-students-votes-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why College Students\u2019 Votes Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"klr1\"<\/a>Influential Journalists Challenge Students
\nto Focus on Political Process<\/em><\/p>\n

Three prominent journalists encouraged Georgia Southern students to become more involved in the political process by showing up to vote on Election Day. Former ABC News \u201cNightline\u201d anchor Ted Koppel, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson addressed the students as part of the University\u2019s Leadership Lecture Series, which is designed to expose students to insights from world-class leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201c2016 Elections: Voting as an Informed Citizen,\u201d was the topic for the three-member panel at Hanner Fieldhouse held in spring 2016; however, much of the discussion focused on the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination. In explaining why today\u2019s young voters should be paying attention to the presidential primary campaign, Robinson, a Washington Post<\/em> columnist said, \u201cI don’t know what could be more compelling than a political year like this one in terms of drawing people into the political process.\u201d National Public Radio\u2019s Liasson noted, \u201cWhat happens in state capitals and in Washington affects young voters and they have to take ownership of the issues. If you don\u2019t think that something is at stake this year, you are really living under a rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"klr2\"<\/a>The visiting journalists addressed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump\u2019s impact on the presidential campaign and the Republican Party. Koppel, who has spent more than 50 years as a professional journalist, described Trump as the ideal Twitter candidate. \u201cIt\u2019s extraordinary. He gives no answers to substantive questions,\u201d Koppel said. \u201cHe has learned how to use social media in a fashion that we have never seen before. He keeps exceeding all expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel noted that in a normal election year, the huge story would involve the Bernie Sanders phenomenon \u2013 that of a socialist-leaning democrat \u2013 who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination. \u201cHis story is second tier because this is Trump\u2019s year,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cNo one saw this coming a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liasson agreed that Trump\u2019s impact on the campaign has been overwhelming. \u201cHe has sucked all the oxygen out of the room,\u201d she said while calling his effect on the Republican Party profound. \u201cThe Republican Party is either cracking up or being utterly transformed before our eyes and we\u2019ve never seen anything like this because he is diametrically opposed to most of the bedrock principles of the Republican Party as we have known it: free trade, entitlement reform, support for a strong military abroad and the Iraq war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"klr3\"<\/a>Koppel pointed out that terrorism, homeland security and immigration are some of the main issues for voters in deciding what presidential nominee to support. The broadcaster said the candidates are capitalizing on the issue of terrorism while overlooking far greater dangers to the American people. In his recent book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath<\/em>, Koppel examined the impact of a cyberattack on America\u2019s power grid and what the nation should be doing to prepare for the potential catastrophe. While visiting Georgia Southern he said, \u201cThe likelihood of that happening is to quote a candidate \u2018YUGE. It\u2019s going to happen and when it happens the United States is totally unprepared. If one of our power grids is knocked out, tens of millions of people will be without electricity for months at a time. That\u2019s a real threat and it hasn\u2019t even come up in this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guest speakers urged voters to become more informed about politics by reading and listening to news that is \u201cnot just the news you want to hear and agree with.\u201d They also had words for Georgia Southern students pursuing careers in journalism. \u201cI would tell them to be flexible,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe have no idea what this profession is going to look like in the future but\u00a0I think it is an exciting time. We’re inventing new models all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"klr5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Six Words<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Georgia Southern hosted Michele Norris as the featured speaker for the 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. Norris is the founder of the Race Card Project, an initiative intended to foster dialogue about race through six-word descriptions. We asked this year\u2019s Leadership Lecture Series speakers to use six words to sum up the race for president?<\/p>\n

British born American Journalist Ted Koppel:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I chose to be an American citizen.<\/p>\n

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist Eugene Robinson:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Donald Trump could really be president.<\/p>\n

NPR National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The old Republican Party is extinct.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sandra Bennett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Influential Journalists Challenge Students to Focus on Political Process Three prominent journalists encouraged Georgia Southern students to become more involved in the political process by showing up to vote on Election Day. Former ABC News \u201cNightline\u201d anchor Ted Koppel, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson addressed the students as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-5643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-spring-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}