NBC's Todd Discusses Problems in Washington at MSU

 Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, discussed what he sees as the problems with today’s federal government, what he sees as the solution, and his favorites in the 2016 Presidential election. 

“People always ask me if Washington is as bad as it looks,” Todd said at the opening of his speech. “And I always tell them it’s worse,” he said to laughs. “And I hate that it’s a laugh line. That’s what’s frustrating but it can get better.”

Todd first used the immigration debate to illustrate his point, conceding that everyone in government knows that immigration is a big problem that needs to be seriously addressed, but no one wants to really address it.   

 “This is where we are," he said. “I could take 12 of you, different ideologies, from different sides of the aisle, put you in a room together and give you the immigration issue, I guarantee you could all come to a compromise that all 12 of you could agree to, and that’s not happening in Washington.”

“The whole point of representative democracy is that we would elect people to Washington to represent our interests as best as they could but at the end of the day solve problems,” he continued. “And we are now in an era where solving a problem isn’t rewarded by a voter.” 

As far as how did we get here, Todd said after a considerable amount of examination of that very question, he feels that there are a few root causes.

“I’ve been looking at this very hard… and yes the media is a big part of the problem”, he began. “ The two political parties are a huge part of the problem, and the interest groups are I think, the biggest part of the problem, in the ways they sort of own the political parties and you guys, the voters are part of the problem, particularly the voters who aren’t voting.”

He said that in the 2014 more money was spent on political campaigns, in a mid-term election that has ever been spent, but at the same time the voter turnout was the lowest it has been in 70 years.

“Now if you’re a business, and you are spending all this money to get people to buy your product, and even fewer people are buying your product wouldn’t you say to yourself that there is something  wrong with the product? You’ve been sending this message that this business in Washington isn’t working but the business doesn’t change. ”  

A result, he said that the largest growing political party is no party, in that more and more voters are no longer allying themselves with either of the political parties.  And that there is this sense among voters that neither party represents them because there is a feeling that party means you are either on the far left or on the far right, when most people see themselves as in the middle.

“All the political parties are doing,” he stated, “is trying to save themselves, save their turf, and not give in to the other guys, and “Big data”(information and technology) is dividing us up. A system that was designed to create compromise has made it possible instead to create gridlock.”

He told of how today’s  technology, and the access to information it provides has changed the political process in ways counter intuitive to their intent.  How campaigns look at everything from voters tv viewing habits and how they relate to issues that are used to divide or discredit, not tout their candidate or persuade voters.

In terms of a solution to the current state of affairs, Todd lays his hopes on the next generation of leaders.

“This is why I am excited about being on a university campus, because the solution lies with the next generation.” He stated. “This new generation, they have to be the ones to fix it.  If you look at the greatest generation, they grew up in the Great  Depression, which forced a sense of community. So this strong sense of community led them to, as Tom Brokaw put, it save the world.”

Todd hopes the great recession of 2008 will have a similar impact, hoping the memory of seeing their friends or family members suffer through that will help build a sense of community and foster an attitude of wanting the world to be different and better for themselves and their kids, just like their grandparents did for their parents. 

He said that he has already seen it in the distrust and departure this generation has in big business turning instead to smaller peer to peer startups like Uber, and Air BnB where people are turning to each other for goods, and services, instead of big corporations.   He feels that this could be the seed of change in government, and perhaps even a strong third party, with a “sane Ross Perot” who could shake up the two parties enough so real change could come to Washington.

In looking ahead to 2016, Todd said that in his estimation, the 12 or 13 potential candidates combined make up the strongest slate of candidates since 1980. His “final four” today, something he admits could change in 3-4 months, is Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and Scott Walker. On the Democrat side he felt Hillary Clinton was the lone front runner.

On a lighter note. Todd admitted that if his alma mater George Washington, and a “Florida school he has an affinity for,” fail to make the NCAA tournament, he would put the Racers in his final four.

Todd spoke for just over an hour before taking questions from the audience Tuesday night at Murray State’s Lovett Auditorium, as part of the University’s Presidential Lecture Series.