The BBC’s Anu Anand speaks during the BBC’s World Questions held in Lansing, Michigan on June 4, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
The BBC came to Michigan’s Capital city on Tuesday to host its monthly “World Questions” debate on a front-and-center topic for the American people — the 2024 election.
“All eyes are on Michigan,” said Anu Anand, debate moderator and BBC journalist, in opening the discussion.
Michigan again is a battleground state, Anand said, after President Joe Biden won the Great Lakes State by slim numbers in the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump won by a slimmer margin in 2016.
The two men are headed to a likely rematch in the fall.
“World Questions” has been hosted all over the world from India to Mexico, featuring discussions on the biggest issues facing the host country. Michigan Sens. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) and Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), along other panelists, discussed what Michiganders are thinking and feeling coming into the 2024 election during the event in Lansing.
“Right now, rational human beings are thinking, ‘Is this really the best we have?’” Damoose said, referring to Biden and Trump, the two major party candidates in the election.
State Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) speaks during the BBC’s World Questions held in Lansing, Michigan on June 4, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
Faith in democracy has come into question in Michigan as the integrity of the 2020 election is still being denied by some Republicans — despite the fact that state and federal audits didn’t show any significant problems — and trust in elected officials wanes.
However, Damoose and Anthony both agreed that despite the current state of affairs, the U.S. has been through dark days before and has withstood them.
“If I have to look at the highest office of this country and see an individual that does not respect the rule of law, who questions our courts, questions the fabric of our democracy, of course, the citizenry will question, ‘Are we going to be OK,’” Anthony said, referring to Trump, who last week was convicted of 34 felonies in a New York case stemming from the 2016 election. “I think that that is a reasonable question. I still have to believe that our systems can withstand that former occupant of the White House, but we are vulnerable.”
Anthony added that she thinks about Trump’s run for the presidency like this: Her mom is from Missouri, the “Show Me” state and Trump has “shown” who he is — someone who does not believe in democracy.
The presidency, although the highest office in the country, is only one office, Damoose said, and a lot is lost when individuals assess that they’re only opportunity to have their voice heard in government is at the polls every four years.
“We spend so much time thinking about presidents here, what we should be thinking about as our local governments, our governors,” Damoose said. “We have been through so much, and I believe that the democracy of our whole country is much stronger than anybody, any one person, any one president.”
Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) speaks during the BBC’s World Questions held in Lansing, Michigan on June 4, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)
Michigan is a diverse political state. From 1992 until 2016, Michigan voted for the Democratic nominee in presidential elections as part of the “blue wall,” but Trump upended that streak in 2016. While Biden did win the state four years later, Democrats only secured partisan control of the state Legislature in 2022 for the first time in nearly 40 years. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, also won reelection.
Since then, Democrats have passed major gun reforms, LGBTQ+ civil rights laws and abortion rights legislation. The change in power has been marked with high tensions in the Legislature, with many votes being strictly along partisan lines.
People have to start trusting people again, Damoose said, noting that though he’s a vocal anti-abortion Republican senator, he has “genuine respect” for his Democratic colleague, Anthony, who has spearheaded abortion rights legislation.
“Sarah and I are friends. … I don’t think that she’s trying to kill babies. … You listen to everybody who’s pro-life, that’s what you hear. I don’t think so. She came to her conclusion, I’m assuming through rational means. I know her to be a good person with a good heart. She knows I’m not trying to strip people’s rights away from them,” Damoose said.
If people can earn trust and be given latitude to respectfully disagree, Damoose said individuals of differing beliefs can start working together.
“I frankly don’t care who wins this presidential election. What I care about is that maybe afterwards, there’s room for somebody to stand up and say, ‘Have we had enough? Do we want to go back to some of the civility we used to see or at least read about?’” Damoose said.
Michigan is diverse, both in ideology and racial and ethnic identities, Anthony said, and that’s a beautiful thing for the state.
Michigan has one of the highest populations of Arab Americans in the U.S. Leaders in the community have led the charge to challenge Biden’s support of Israel in the war in Gaza, leading to more than 100,000 voters in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary election to vote “uncommitted,” more than 10% of votes cast.
In 2020, Biden won by about 150,000 votes so the “uncommitted” movement could potentially be influential on which candidate gets all of Michigan’s 15 electoral votes.
The concerns and the pain that Michiganders are experiencing with what’s happening in the Middle East can’t be ignored and neither can the hateful rhetoric against Arab and Jewish residents, Anthony said. But the nuclear option is not voting.
“I think that just like any other relationship, we’re not going to think that everything is perfect every day, but when I look at where the Biden administration has been in totality … I look at how this administration has…shown up for me and for people that I care about,” Anthony said. “I hope that we take a more nuanced position on where we think our leadership is going moving forward, because for folks who are uncommitted, I think it’s important to note that they aren’t going to get anything different with Donald Trump.”
The BBC will be airing the Michigan episode of “World Questions” on Saturday online.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The post BBC ‘World Questions’ comes to Michigan to discuss the 2024 election appeared first on Michigan Advance.