President Trump’s unique social media presence has sparked an interest in politics amongst students who otherwise would not take an avid interest in current affairs. In fact, students are signing up for government and political science classes in record numbers.
Michelle Whyman, a political science professor at Duke University, says the Trump administration has certainly sparked students’ interest in politics. Whyman credits the novelty of the Trump presidency, commenting that political scientists have been given much untapped territory, reports Duke Today.
“The only thing that really changed in how I taught the course was actually having an election season that students were that tuned in to…Because of a lot of the drama surrounding the election, it provided some interesting opportunities to get them more involved in understanding the electoral college process, elections in general and strategies presidents have historically employed to get elected…They’re familiar with Twitter and Facebook. That a president uses them is not that surprising to them…But the tone and tenor of the content of some of those messages are somewhat surprising,” said Whyman.
Matt Mervis, a sophomore at Duke University who has yet to declare a major, has enrolled in Professor Whyman’s class, “Congress and the President,” because of his interest in news surrounding President Trump.
“I am interested in this course because I like to keep up with current events involving our government, largely including President Trump’s Twitter rants and the possibly looming war between the U.S. and North Korea…I took a U.S. government class in high school and saw this course as a fitting continuation of that topic,” Mervis said.
David Rhode, a political scientist who has taught the subject for 50 years and taught “Congress and the President” at Duke University for 10 years, from 2005-2015, also notes the uncanny characteristics of politics with President Trump at the helm of the nation.
“I teach about American Politics from a theoretical point of view, so that approach is resilient enough to deal with the myriad variations we have encountered over my career…In particular, I recognize that political actors have a wide range of motives and perceptions that shape their choices. Trump is, however, certainly the most unusual actor I have dealt with,” explains Rhode.
According to Rhode, the closest comparison to the Trump administration in presidential history is the Carter administration during its early years. Students of political science certainly have a front row seat to history in the making.
