Will the Trump Administration Renew American Democracy?

A Zócalo/Daniel K. Inouye Institute “Pau Hana” Event
Moderated by Bill Dorman, News Director, Hawaiʻi Public Radio

Is the Trump Administration restoring American greatness, as its fans claim? Or is it a threat to American democracy, as its critics fear? E.J. Dionne, a leading American political journalist and Washington Post columnist, suggests a third option: that the Trump administration, by trampling so many norms and so thoroughly shaking up the system, could inspire a wave of participation, activism, and national soul-searching that leads to a democratic renewal.

What signs, if any, can we see now of such a rebirth? What do Hawaii and other states far from Washington have to contribute to a democratic renewal? Do American communities have a strong enough civic infrastructure—from neighborhood organizations to media—to support a 21st-century democracy? Dionne, co-author of One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported, visits Honolulu to discuss how Americans could achieve democratic renewal in a country that is so big, so diverse, so economically unequal, and so divided by politics and by the president himself.

Books will be available for purchase from the University of Hawai’i Manoa Bookstore.