On April 15th 2024, our chapter was represented at a podium discussion organized by Studopolis, entitled "Road to 2024 - USA, Deutschland und die Wahl". Studopolis is a political forum for students and young people in Germany, and the evening focused on the 2024 US elections. Our communications coordinator Candice Newton was on stage for the discussion, along with:

• Elmar Theveßen, the Washington correspondent for the German public broadcaster ZDF
• Julius van de Laar, a former consultant for the Obama campaign, and
• Dr. George Weinberg, Executive Director of Republicans Overseas Germany

The venue was full, with a well-informed and engaged audience who asked excellent questions. Our members Jodi Szarko and Maryann Schmunk shared their impressions of the event.

By Jodi Szarko

I wasn’t sure what to expect as we walked up to Hebebühne Hamburg to a political forum in Germany about the US election. It’s one of those sites where you walk through a courtyard to an unassuming building that could either have have ten or a thousand people inside. We saw some friendly faces pretty quickly, and there were 50-100 people inside. The atmosphere was a little more relaxed than I expected, and I was into it. The tiny plastic chairs filled up quickly in the front, but we were able to score some comfy seats by the couches in the back.

In the first portion, Julius van de Laar laid out the current state of politics in the US. As a former strategist for the Obama campaign, and as a person who has basic reasoning skills, his main focus seemed to be giving a framework as to why Trump has so many “followers” and why this is problematic. He talked less about Biden, but I think this is because he knew that this audience was more concerned/confused about Trump’s popularity in the states. He played some of the current trial footage of Trump’s current trial, and he had a few graphs depicting the mindset of the current Trump voter such as this one:

(From https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-poll-indictments-2023-08-20/)

His talk was a mix of facts, observations, and lighthearted jabs at the GOP representative that would be on the panel after his talk, George Weinberg. At the end of his talk, he had some “fuzzy math” explaining how the audience from one Taylor Swift concert could determine the election results in the US. Overall, I think he did a good job of explaining some of the details as to why we are where we are, and he showed that we can voice our opinions using humanity and humor, which made his lecture more entertaining and easier to follow. One point gave me pause though. In the Q&A portion of his talk, I had the impression that many of the audience members believed that most Americans like Trump or are not as bothered by him. This concept spilled over into the panel section of the night. Although I personally think the number of Trump supporters is WAY too high, I think the number of Trump supporters are in the 20-30% range, which is not the majority. I think we need to be better at pointing out that the majority of Americans do NOT like what he stands for, but some Americans are tired of fighting, so they are more disengaged from politics, and maybe they are not as conspicuous.

The bulk of the evening was a panel with two moderators and four guests: Julius van de Laar, our own Candice Newton, George Weinberg from Republicans Overseas, and Elmar Theveßen from ZDF. Overall, I expected Candice to do an amazing job, and she did not disappoint! Her answers were well thought out, concise, and compelling. She was very good at bringing facts to the forefront of every argument, and she advocated for Democrats Abroad seamlessly. Many of her responses elicited applause from the audience until they realized we were actually supposed to leave our applause to the end because they were so moved. I have no notes!

The responses from Dr. Weinberg were, as expected, a stark contrast from Candice’s responses. They were very long winded and contained almost no facts. His statements were often shot down by the three other guests. He stated several opinions about how the GOP is treated unfairly and that we should feel bad for them. I got out the world’s tiniest violin for him at this point. At some points, I felt like I was watching a comedic parody of a political panel rather than an actual political panel. When asked what some of the good things that came out of the Trump administration, “Space Force” was one of the things at the top of his list. I blacked out here for about 20 minutes- 10 minutes trying not to laugh at this as something a human would say without a modicum sarcasm, and 10 minutes replaying the Netflix show Space Force, starring Steve Carrell and John Malkovich. It was a pretty good show, so if Weinberg meant this cinematic gem, then I can agree with him on this point.

Less funny were his unsolicited attacks on Elmar Theveßen. As the only nonpartisan journalist on the panel, it might seem strange that George Weinberg would go after him more than Candice or even Julius. When Dr. Weinberg was berating Theveßen for failing to report on Trump accurately, most of the audience seemed confused, and there was a bit of nervous laughter in the air. Actually, this tactic comes straight out of the GOP handbook. They go after facts and represent them as lies in the general public. If they can get just a couple of people to question the accuracy of the facts being presented to them, they can propagate their “misinformation” more easily and get more support. It’s more effective than going after the other party if it works. Fortunately, I don’t think it worked with this audience. I think Theveßen did a remarkable job of keeping his cool and pointing out that his job is to represent facts. He also did some real time fact checking on stage to many of Weinberg’s “alternative facts” stated throughout the night. In the end, I don’t think anyone in the audience was starting to question the validity of ZDF, and I was highly impressed with the journalist’s level of professionalism. He has a new fan!

When the panel discussion was over, I was happy to take on the role of Candice Newton groupie. Several people came to talk to her, and she was still very skilled with her responses, even off of the stage. It was interesting to me to hear how some of the audience members responded to the forum. It was also encouraging to see many young Germans willing to be DAG allies in any way they can. I left feeling more motivated to carry on the work we are doing. On the way home, I asked my husband what he thought of the night. He echoed many of my thoughts, and he also pointed out that the night was primarily about the campaign and had very little substantive information on political issues such as health care or abortion rights. Because most of the audience is not voting in the election, the specifics of these issues might be less important to them. Many of them did express feelings of trepidation about having Trump return as a presidential leader because of what that could do for democracy around the globe. I think the main themes of the night is that perception is important in an election year, and we need to make sure that people are getting accurate information about what is happening in the world so people can make the most informed decisions. We can also advocate for our preferred candidates without lying, and, if we can’t, maybe that’s not a great candidate. We are not alone in our mission to help people get informed, which gave me a lot of hope.

By Maryann Schmunk

The room was packed.  The mood was electric.  The expectations were high!

Students from all over Germany were gathered to discuss the upcoming US election at Studiopolis, a political forum that encourages dialogue and debate on current affairs among young people.  The panel brought together several experts:  Julius van de Laar, International Consultant for campaign strategy; Elmar Thevessen, Head of the ZDF Studio in Washington DC; George Weinberg, representing Republicans Overseas; and last but not least, Candice Newton, Communications Coordinator for our Chapter.

To begin, Mr. Van de Laar did an excellent job of explaining the intricacies and the peculiarities of the US voting system benefiting from his experience supporting the Obama campaign, and aided by a flood of excellent questions from the students in the audience.  Finally, the panelists were called on to answer questions, at which point the moderator faced the challenge of trying to keep the answers focused on the questions, politely pointing out blatantly untrue statements, and veering the discussion away from the unexpected criticism of the German Öffentlich-Rechtlichtes Rundfunk by the Republican guest.

The topics were endless and examined both democratic and republican views on:  the thoroughly disproven idea that the 2020 election was stolen, handling of the war in Gaza, the economy, the crisis on the border, the age of the candidates, the "uncommitted vote", the polarization between the parties, the record of the previous president and what he plans to do if he wins a second term.  The students peppered the panel with questions, but it is not an exaggeration to say that their applause was reserved entirely for the Democrats.  Some of the claims made by Mr. Weinberg did not even have to be rebutted because they were immediately countered by laughter from the audience.

After more than three hours our heads were spinning!  Just a few personal take-aways:

• The panel spent the largest portion of their time fact-checking, especially Mr. Theveßen who simply stated what candidate Trump has said before the cameras, or what has been proposed by the committee plotting his complete re-do of the government so that there will be no opposition left after he wins another term.  Still he was criticized by the Republican for biased ZDF reporting.  Ironically, Mr. Weinberg also noted how informed Germans are about what is going on in the US, at which point an audience member shouted, "That is because of ZDF!"

• It is clear that we cannot come together as a nation or work together across the aisle unless we can agree on a common set of facts.

• Mr. van de Laar cautioned though, "Fact-checking is not enough, although this evening it was necessary."  He cited Biden`s strong State of the Union address, but added that it is not enough to say that the "US economy is the envy of the world" when many people are not feeling it in their daily lives.  It behooves Democrats to continue to emphasize the measures this administration has already put forward to remedy this, and will continue to address in the next term.  Candice had the last word and summed it up best when citing the reason one should vote for Biden:  "Trump is only in it for himself, but Biden is genuinely interested in doing something that will make our lives better."

It was gratifying for us to see that the younger generation is interested in voting and supporting their democracy and ours. Applause please!