On Wednesday evening, Tom Perez ’83 P’18, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Democratic National Committee chairman, and Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman, discussed President Trump’s return to power at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy.
Speaking at the center’s Alexander Meiklejohn Lecture, the two former party chairs said that both parties need to reflect on the 2024 election’s outcome for different reasons.
Democrats need to be more responsive to voters, Perez argued, adding that Democrats “do too much talking and not enough listening.”
“I think the biggest reason we lost is we need to really better understand voters,” he added. “Democracy is about arithmetic. It’s addition, it’s not subtraction.”
Steele said that the Trumpian brand has cemented itself in the fabric of the Republican Party.
“For the first time, we’re all seeing it for what it really is,” Steele said of the Republican Party. He posed the possibility that the Ronald Reagan-era of the GOP was an “illusion” and not “who we are as Republicans.” Instead, he said, President Trump may now be more representative of the party.
“A lot of us are grappling with that question right now,” he said.
He also characterized Trump’s election wins as a culmination of a decades-long career reaching audiences on reality TV.
“Donald Trump had forged a relationship with Americans long before he decided to run for president,” Steele said. “He was on their TVs every week, firing people, looking like he was in charge.”
In Steele’s eyes, this made the presidential race an “asymmetrical game.”
Perez argued that gerrymandering, or the manipulation of election borders, has reversed the roles of voters and elected officials. “Elected officials are picking their voters,” he said. “Voters aren’t picking their elected officials anymore.”
Steele focused on the importance of state and local elections. Despite gerrymandering efforts and public frustration with the electoral college system, he said Americans can look to state legislatures to protect their voting rights.
He also noted the consequences of low voter turnout during the 2024 election.
“Fewer of our American citizens decided to participate this time around,” he said.
Steele said that Trump’s vocal desire for retribution and dictatorship should have been a warning to voters. “Why didn’t you believe him?” he rhetorically asked voters. “Why’d you stay home? Why didn’t you care?”
Michael Vogel GS said that he thought having two speakers from different political parties made for a “cool dynamic.”
Attendee David London ’64, a former Herald staffer, said that he resonated with both speakers’ criticisms of their own parties. “You hear each of them talk about the things that they did right and the things they did wrong,” he said.
Toby Parker London ’65, also a former Herald staffer, said that she was “particularly appreciative of Tom Perez’s optimism because it’s a pretty discouraging time right now.”
Both Perez and Steele expressed optimism for the future of American democracy. Perez, a self-identified “eternal optimist,” framed the moment as one of reflection and potential for improvement.
“This is a dangerous moment,” Perez said. “But it’s far more dangerous if we sit home and we allow the appalling silence to take over.”
Annika Singh is a senior staff writer from Singapore who enjoys rewatching Succession and cheating on the NYT crossword.
