To Jeffery Jenkins, provost professor of public policy at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, “Democracy is always flawed.” 

In the annual Warschaw Conference, Jenkins said there will always be challenges in maintaining a democracy, but whether this moment in history is different or not is up for debate. 

USC’s Center for the Political Future’s annual political conference, titled “America 250: Young or Old Democracy?” delved into the state of United States democracy on Tuesday at Town and Gown Ballroom. The event featured several panels featuring authors, former government officials and academics. Panels addressed topics such as former President Joe Biden’s competency and Prop 50.

Speakers in the morning panels ranged from Shaniqua McClendon, the vice president of politics at Crooked Media, to Neera Tanden, a former domestic policy advisor to Biden.

Former Biden official said Republicans are anti-democratic

One of the conference’s panels, “American Democracy: From George Washington to Donald Trump and Beyond,” was moderated by CNN anchor Elex Michaelson. 

Early in the conversation, Michaelson turned to Mike Donilon, the former senior advisor to Biden during his presidency, to ask if he wanted to clear up any misconceptions about the campaign. Donilon dismissed criticisms of Biden’s health and confirmed why he ended his campaign. 

“There was a perception that he couldn’t do the job,” Donilon said. “[However], no one can point to a moment in the Biden presence when he failed to do his job as president.” 

Another topic that came up repeatedly during this panel was Jan. 6. Political commentator Richard Patterson said the Republican response to the insurrection was a sign that the party is anti-democratic. 

“I think we’ve got one pro-democratic party in America,” Patterson said. “We crossed that bridge when Republicans started denying what happened on Jan. 6, when most congresspeople voted to support Trump … [and] denying what had really happened with gerrymandering.” 

Former President and CEO of the Tarrance Group Ed Goeas said he disagreed with Patterson’s comment, particularly on the relevance of gerrymandering and redistricting. 

“Maybe anti-democratic amongst a certain president, but it’s not true of general Republican voters,” Goeas said. “I think there’s a deeper problem, and I keep hearing redistricting popping up. Redistricting is not the problem we have today. The problem we have today is 30 years of negative campaigning.” 

Following the panel, Heba Aboul Hosn, a sophomore majoring in public policy, said she wished the panelist group had been more diverse in opinion. 

“In terms of effective discourse, I felt like they kind of all aligned similarly,” Hosn said. “I think it would be nice to see a little bit of differing sides. [But] I think it moderated really well. I think obviously they’re professionals in their field, so it was nice to hear their insights.” 

Chloe Juni, a sophomore majoring in public policy, said she felt there was no racial or age diversity among speakers. 

“It was a lot of older, white men who were speaking,” Juni said. “It’d be nice to see people our age or people of color being able to talk about the same issues.” 

Redistricting was motivated by the ‘centrality of Trump’

The conference also addressed the ongoing nationwide redistricting battle in a panel titled “Redistricting: Are Politicians Choosing Their Voters?” Journalist Sasha Issenberg moderated the discussion, which featured panelists such as Jim DeBoo, the former chief of staff to Gov. Gavin Newsom, and David Simas, the former president of the Obama Foundation.

DeBoo described his shock when Gov. Greg Abbott began redistricting in Texas this past summer in favor of Republicans. DeBoo said he went on to support redistricting in California through Proposition 50, a measure that voters passed to redraw the state’s voting maps in favor of Democrats. DeBoo served as a senior advisor of the “Yes on 50” campaign. 

Amy Thoma Tan, president of Cobalt Public Affairs, said she believes Californians are “very supportive” of independent redistricting. 

“California is overwhelmingly — across age, gender, political persuasion — they all agree that independent redistricting is the way to draw lines,” Tan said. 

Following the initial discussion of redistricting, Issenberg described the motivations of politicians for supporting redistricting. Simas said he thinks the motivations are related to Trump. 

“For me, it’s the centrality of Trump,” Simas said. “It’s hard to talk about either Democratic elected officials’ or Republican elected officials’ incentives without beginning and ending with the way the president fits into it.” 

DeBoo said that the willingness to redistrict for Democrats in California was an effort to ensure Democrats had a chance at success in future elections — even if it meant taking a big risk. DeBoo also said Democrats had the opportunity to redraw maps in a way that would leave no Republican seats. However, they didn’t do so, because it was “a step too far.” 

Ranay Sah, a senior majoring in communication, said he thought the second panel was “pretty well split.”

“You had an academic. You had a person who was an ex-elected official. You had the ex-chief of staff for Gavin Newsom,” Sah said. “Of course, there wasn’t an alternative right view, which usually people would say, ‘Oh, we need an alternative right view.’ But with California, you don’t need that right now.” 

The panel also discussed how to redistrict communities of interest —  groups of people who share common ethnic, religious, economic or cultural interests. Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy, said politicians should prioritize keeping these groups in a single district for fair representation.

“[Communities of interest are] basically self-defined,” Grose said. “That’s the future of where redistricting could go once we get aside the partisan and some of the race issues.” 

Sah said he enjoyed the conference and appreciated the amount of political programming the University offers to students. 

“The event’s pretty great,” Sah said. “It’s run well. I think we actually have a lot of really good political events that happen on campus. I really can’t complain about that.