LEWISBURG — Just days after the twenty-first anniversary of 9/11, one of those in the White House that day spoke virtually to attendees during a speaker series on Bucknell University’s campus.
Condoleezza Rice, the first U.S. Secretary of State of a different race, and first woman to serve as national security adviser, appeared during a virtual exchange hosted by University President John Bravman on Tuesday at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts.
Rice spoke about the “State of American Democracy” during a speaker series that since 2007 has featured national leaders, scholars and commentators who have examined various issues from multidisciplinary and diverse viewpoints.
“The Bucknell Forum underscores the university’s long-held commitment to welcoming many voices and ideas,” Bravman said. “This speaker series was founded in 2007 with the purpose of encouraging thoughtful conversation featuring different perspectives on some of the most pressing issues facing society. That will certainly be the case during this midterm election year.”
Past Forum speakers have included famed primatologist Jane Goodall, award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and CNN broadcast journalist and political commentator Anderson Cooper, among others.
Rice spoke on a multitude of topics including the Middle East.
“Iran is known to cause trouble in the middle east,” Rice said.
Addressing ongoing tensions in eastern Europe and the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, Rice said she believes Vladimir Putin will not cross the line to bring NATO into his war.
“I’m not sure his generals want to die with him,” Rice said.
But Rice did say she is concerned Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“Nuclear weapons would be crossing an entirely different threshold,” she said.
Rice commented on recent elections and hinted her belief they were safe and legitimate.
“Most people believe the last elections were pretty successful,” Rice said.
Rice said during her youth, she switched political parties to become a Republican over President Jimmy Carter’s lackluster response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
“For me initially it was all about foreign policy,” said Rice. “I think the political parties are more partisan now”
When voting, Rice said people tend to respond more to personalities over the issues themselves.
“The broad middle is sitting it out as far as grassroots politics,” she said.
Rice encouraged people to get involved at the grassroots level, be active in local parties and run for office.
“We have so many levels of government and we’re not taking advantage of the idea of influencing them,” Rice said.
Rice, who was secretary of state for George W. Bush, said for people to stop ceding control to people who show up to vote.
Commenting on the U.S. Supreme Court, Rice said politics and politicization of the Supreme Court are two separate things. She said presidents appointing justices of their own ideology is not politicization of the court.
“The supreme court has difficulty making an apolitical decision,” Rice said. “Courts will change.”
She said she is a defender of the electoral college.
“One of the problems with one man, one vote, is that sometimes you don’t hear the voices of minorities or smaller states,” she said. Rice said the electoral college was intended to give those a voice who don’t have a loud one.
“It’s not perfect but I don’t think there’s a good substitute for it,” said Rice. She said many of America’s institutions are not perfect.
Rice, whose mother was a teacher, addressed teacher pay saying there should be more merit pay for teachers.
“But the quickest way to turn around a bad school is to get a good principal. You have to have high expectations,” Rice said.
She said if she was president she would focus on education. Rice said the race to the bottom for expectations in school is happening and she wants people to have the same choices for school as wealthy people do.
“The truth is poor parents want better options for their children,” Rice said.
She said people talk about how democracies fail but said people usually do not talk about why they succeed.
America, Rice said, is the most innovative country in the world.
“America is the most individualistic country. We are also the most humanitarian,” she said.
She said citizens taking care of citizens is the highest form of democracy.
Rice said she was upset about events surrounding the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020.
Rice said she has much confidence in this generation.
“Pubic service is marvelous and a high-minded thing to do,” she said.
Remaining speakers in this year’s Bucknell Forum will appear in person: Jake Tapper, lead Washington anchor for CNN, will speak Nov. 30 in the Weis Center; John Kasich, former Republican governor of Ohio, and David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, both of whom serve as senior political commentators at CNN, will appear together on Feb. 28 also at the Weis Center; Barbara F. Walter ‘86, scholar of civil wars and the author of New York Times best-seller “How Civil Wars Start (and How to Stop Them),” will speak April 4 in Trout Auditorium.