Davisville, Sept. 30, 2024: Two pros size up ‘An Election Like No Other’

Davisville

Today’s show is for people interested in the current election but sick of the usual political noise. The guests are two highly experienced political analysts, Dan Schnur and Richard Zeiger, who will teach an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class at the University of California Davis this fall called “An Election Like No Other.”

On Davisville today we talk about why this presidential election is both different and traditional, why many elected offices are uncontested, cynicism as a turnoff and as a way to cope, and young Americans who opt to get involved in their community outside of politics. "Volunteering is noble," Schnur says, "but you can only clean up so many parks. Participating by voting or running for office or getting involved in other ways is equally important."

“One of the most important lessons about politics … It leads to a democracy [and] you have to be willing to lose,” says Zeiger, who lives in Davis. "That’s what the whole business is about, somebody’s going to win and somebody’s going to lose. And when you lose, you pull your pants back on and you go back into the fray.”

In the class, Schnur says, “we come at this as analysts, not advocates … and so the way that we believe to keep these conversations productive, is not simply for people to scream and yell at each other and talk about who’s right and who’s wrong, but rather to analyze why the candidates are doing and saying the things that they’re saying and doing, and trying to make broader sense of it."