“Is There a Center in America? A Conversation with Joe Manchin and Jon Meacham” took place March 2 in the Owen Graduate School of Management’s Ingram Great Room with an audience of around 300 students and community members. As part of Dialogue Vanderbilt’s “250 Conversations on America: Civil Discourse in Action” lecture series, the event featured former United States Senator Joe Manchin along with political science professor Jon Meacham, discussing topics from party division, foreign relations, immigration and constituency representation.
Manchin, who represented West Virginia in the Senate for over 43 years, spoke extensively about his core values of respect and generosity, emphasizing public service and the importance of choosing policy over politics. He opened the conversation with Meacham by discussing his early life and the responsibility he has always felt toward his community.
Manchin then offered his thoughts regarding the current legislative system, discussing issues such as corporate funding and extreme party identification in the electoral system. He added that substantial change is unlikely to occur without some form of initiation.
“We got a Democrat company, a billion-dollar corporation, and we got a Republican billion-dollar corporation,” Manchin said. “They control how you vote; they control the primaries. Our job is to choose who’s best for the job — who’s the most congenial, who’s the smartest [and] who’s the best fit. We don’t do that; we just sit back and let the party choose, [but] both sides have the same modus operandi. They intimidate you.”
Manchin shared how Jan. 6, 2021, was both the worst and best day he experienced during his time in Congress.
“When I think back to that day, I could not believe it,” Manchin said. “But the best day could’ve been the same day. This was my best moment to a tee [when Manchin said], ‘hell no, [rioters are] not running us out of our chamber, we’re going back up.’ [Congress] went up at 4 o’clock and finished our business.”
Meacham then asked Manchin about the future of American politics and the direction in which it is heading. Manchin said he believes there is a strain on the democratic experiment.
“We’re pushing it as far as we can possibly push it in the society we have,” Manchin said. “We can tolerate all the [emotional] swings we’re getting right now, [but] until we, as a wonderful country that we are, decide we’re going to take this back, things won’t change.”
Senior Adam Hosein, president of Vanderbilt Political Review, commented on the importance of the event in light of the current political climate.
“Right now, we’re at a stage in politics where everything is so polarized between the right and the left, and it was honestly very refreshing for me to be able to hear a politician be able to speak very candidly about how it is in Congress to try to navigate that polarization,” Hosein said. “There was a lot more that I agreed with [Manchin] on that I didn’t expect to agree with, and I hope we can have politicians emulate him moving forward.”
Junior Nadeem Zaman shared his thoughts on Manchin’s relatability and appeal to the audience.
“It wasn’t just a politician sharing purely political experiences. He talked a lot about his upbringing and stuff, so you can relate to some extent,” Zaman said. “I thought the event was a perfect balance between being politically relevant and personally relevant as well.”
