Vanderbilt Experts: Election 2004 2/6/2004
From: Ann Marie Deer Owens of Vanderbilt University, 615-322-NEWS; e-mail: annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu News Advisory: What: Vanderbilt Experts: Election 2004 Broadcast media note: Vanderbilt has a campus broadcast facility with a dedicated fiber optic line for live TV interviews and a radio ISDN line. -- Shadow of Vietnam: John Kerry -- in personal history and recent statements --captures American thinking and memory of Vietnam better than other presidential candidates, according to Vietnam War historian Thomas Alan Schwartz. He says that while two-thirds of Americans would agree with the statement that Vietnam was a mistake, they still think it was wrong to resist serving. Kerry was a genuine war hero who started his public career with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He was among those who "threw back" veterans' war medals toward Congress and the White House to show rejection of awards that honored Vietnam service. Kerry's protests contrast sharply with the actions of Gen. Wesley Clark, who became a four-star Army general with 38 years of military service and who only recently jumped into politics. Schwartz points out that neither Howard Dean nor John Edwards has military experience, which could make them seem more vulnerable about national security. Schwartz, an associate professor of history, authored Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam. He is working on a biography of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Schwartz can be reached at 615-343-4328 or by email at thomas.a.schwartz@vanderbilt.edu -- Labor's influence: Labor unions continue to be an important national political constituency -- particularly for Democrats, says sociologist Dan Cornfield. Labor unions tend to be concentrated in large urban and industrial areas and important economic sectors of the U.S. economy, so a labor endorsement continues to be significant, he says. Organized labor is a chief network available to the Democratic Party for reaching its traditional constituencies -- working people, ethnic and racial minorities in urban areas and working women. Despite challenges to organized labor such as declining membership and its current membership being so economically and occupationally diverse that it is hard to unify and rally around a single set of issues or candidate, its members still have little sentiment for Republicans and strong allegiance to Democrats. Cornfield is a Vanderbilt professor of sociology whose research interests include labor markets, labor movements, labor- management relations and immigration. He is editor of the Work and Occupations journal. Cornfield can be reached at 615-322-7535 or 615-322-8512 or by email at daniel.b.cornfield@vanderbilt.edu |