By: Clare Gifford
Tuesday, November 5th, Sciences Po Lille hosted « La nuit américaine » (American Night), an event featuring thematic academic lectures and student-led artistic performances, from 19h until just after midnight CEST in recognition of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election taking place that same day. Experts delivered talks on key issues driving this election including the rising bipartisan tension, the right to an abortion, and, for some, the future of democracy. Additionally, the Sciences Po Bureau de Internationaux (BDI) organized a panel of American international students studying at Science Po this semester to share their personal perspective on the election in a discussion held between the second and third lecture.
American Night drew students and faculty from Sciences Po Lille, University of Lille, Ecole supérieure de journalisme (ESJ) of Lille, EDHEC Business School of Lille, and other nearby institutions, all eager for insight on an election with wide-spreading global implications. Many also welcomed the opportunity for community and entertainment on a night like that.
When I asked Sciences Po second-year student Hippolyte Andrieu-Rebel why he chose to attend American Night, he first joked that he came to the evening primarily for the Pom Pom cheerleading show. Then, on a more serious note, he added that most of the students in the room, including himself, were already very invested in American politics even before American Night and were well aware of this election’s potential consequences for France.
To open the evening, Alice Béja, a lecturer in English at Sciences Po Lille and researcher at CERAPS, delivered the first talk titled, « Les élections du 5/11, un tournant pour la démocratie américaine ? » (The 5/11 elections, a turning point for American democracy?)
Béja began by noting that the United States, which has been dominated by a strict two-party system for most of its history, has almost always had a significant divide between its two parties’ values and their members. However, over time, this divide has been exacerbated to a point where the two-party system is no longer as productive, or even democratic, as it once was.
She attributed this growing divide to several factors, starting at the inept procedure of the current government and election system. These practices most notably include the Electoral College–often criticized for devaluing the popular vote–and the possibility of different majority rule in the House of Representatives and Congress. Next, she pointed to the more recent normalization of unpresidential behavior among candidates, where regular mocking and ridicule of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, or gender is prevalent. The gender divide between American voters in this election, with the majority of women voting for Harris and the majority of men voting for Trump, emphasizes the impact of unmonitored ridicule on voter patterns and the accepted language in politics.
Béja additionally highlighted both parties’ campaigns reliance on wealthy donors and Super PACs for funding–a practice I’ve heard referred to in France as “corruption”– which acts as a loophole to the donation cap put on donations by individuals and normal PACs. In this election specifically, billionaires like Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy donated to the Trump campaign reportedly in exchange for promises of major government roles in return.
Béja’s concern about the productivity of the Electoral College and the influence of wealth in politics is questioned by the American public, but there has been no wide scale tangible action to change the current system as of yet. Her presentation, nevertheless, was thoroughly enjoyable and encouraged a productive dialogue on the shortcomings of democracy in American politics.
After, students from Populille, Acapelille, La Saltimbanque, and Jam Cafétaria performed covers of English songs while a Friterie Sensas food truck served fries in the courtyard.
Brunelle, a second-year student at the University of Lille School of Journalism at Pont-de-Bois, came to American Night during its intermission to attend the highly-anticipated second lecture on reproductive rights. She was joined by friends and she shared that they came to feel surrounded by a larger community for support.
“We came to be with other people who are kind of worried about what’s going to happen and just to be surrounded,” said Brunelle. “Also, right now they are going to talk about abortion which is a very important topic. To learn new information maybe before the world turns around.”
In his talk titled, « Référendums sur l’IVG, vers un dépassement des clivages traditionnels ? » (Referendums on Abortion: Towards an Overcoming of Traditional Divides?), Simon Grivet, a lecturer in U.S. history and civilization at the University of Lille, discussed the evolution of American public opinion on reproductive rights from a legislative standpoint. He reviewed the impact and outcome of pivotal court cases, including the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protected abortion rights under federal law for nearly fifty years.
In 2022, the Supreme Court, made a Republican majority during Trump’s term, overruled Roe v. Wade and returned abortion legislation to the states. Since then, 18 states have passed total abortion bans or bans after six-weeks of pregnancy. Grivet emphasized that these bans have not stopped women from wanting or needing an abortion with many crossing state lines for a doctor or dying from at-home procedures.
Reproductive rights remain a uniquely sensitive issue in American culture and politics, with abortion far more divisive than it is in France. This division is likely due to the overlap between Church and State on this issue, where “pro-life” views, for the vast majority, are strongly tied to religious beliefs. For many in the “pro-life” camp, being pro-life is synonymous with supporting religious influence in government legislation. This blur would not bode well with the ethics of la laïcité.
On that note, Grivet’s analysis, despite his evident academic expertise in the matter, fell short in explaining the critical role of religion, particularly from conservative sects of Christianity, in driving these abortion bans. Additionally, some American international students expressed discontent that the talk on a women’s rights issue was delivered by a male lecturer, which they felt overlooked a female perspective on the topic.
As soon as the lecture concluded, hoards of students that had been waiting outside filed into the amphitheater to watch the SPL BDS Pom Poms performance.
Five Pom Poms performed a brief, albeit patriotic choreography while dressed in sparkly cheerleader wear, with one even sporting a cowboy hat throughout the show. After an encore performance, the BDI ushered the cheerleaders out to make way for its panel featuring five American international students on their unique perspectives on the elections. The Americans came from the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia, Michigan, and Oklahoma, the last three of which are swing states, and all shared left-leaning or moderate beliefs.
The BDI moderator first asked what each of them made of the current political environment in the US and the increasing presence of related violence.
Hannah Parks, a political science major at Georgia State University, recalled news she heard about the burning of mailboxes with votes inside in Atlanta and the precautions her city took to ensure voter safety at poll sites.
“Right now in Georgia, in the city of Atlanta, we’ve actually, with the current election and voting, had a few people burning mailboxes and everything,” said Parks. “We have to have a lot of protection as well when it comes to people going to the polls to vote just because of the seriousness of the election and how each of the parties have very strong feelings towards the other candidate as well.”
Abby Peaslee, a student from Massachusetts attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon, shared her concern for the highly-populated LGBTQ+ community on her campus. Protecting her campus’ safe space atmosphere has become a greater struggle than before and it will be especially at stake if the Republican candidate is elected.
“It’s very much kind-of shifting where we’ve always had this safe community and now, if Trump does get in, everything will just go upside-down,” said Peaslee. “It’s really scary to see some of my bestfriends feel this way and feel such a danger to their safety.”
The second question addressed public opinion on Kamala Harris, the democratic candidate. Harris and her party’s policies were less well-known because of the trend in international media, and even American media, to focus on the threat of another Trump term rather than on who he was competing against.
However, Harris’ policies remained somewhat vague through her campaign, with some believing that the Democratic candidate relied more on countering Republican ideas than on defining her own vision. Among the positions she did express, left-leaning Americans were disappointed with her approach to international issues, especially her stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, though they still favored her over Trump. For many of her voters, including American University student Jolie Abdo, support for Harris was less about being fully aligned with her values and more about opposition to Trump.
“It’s a difficult thing to support a candidate who you think has some moral issues just so you can avoid this disaster over here,” said Abdo.
The schedule was running about an hour behind by the time the Sciences Po Lille Media Team could set up a live duplex with Science Po third-year students studying in the United States for brief interviews about the campaign atmosphere on their campuses. Students at Fordham, American, San Jose State, Michigan State, and Georgia State each gave a synopsis on the mood of campaign season and how their American peers were feeling about the election.
The two students at American University in Washington D.C. commented on how shocked they were seeing in-person, rather than just from social media, the real tension and violence between some Americans leading up to the election.
“People in this country are so angry,” said one of the students at American.
The other students shared a similar sentiment on the bipartisan divide..
In the final lecture, Dorothée Reignier, a lecturer in public law at Sciences Po Lille, presented her analysis on how accurately American elections are depicted in television series in, « L’élection du Potus dans les séries TV » (The election of the POTUS in TV series). She noted that popular shows like House of Cards, Designated Survivor, and Scandal often featured campaign speeches eerily similar to reality, but that most of the shows gloss over or entirely skip the less glamorous aspects of the election process.
American Night festivities ended just after midnight and live CNN coverage was played on the amphitheater’s projector for some time afterwards.
By midnight CEST, or 18h EST, the results were far too early to call. However, in the next few hours, the Republican Party managed to take both of the most crucial swing states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Their victory was clear after then winning Wisconsin, another swing state. At around 9:30 CEST the next morning, the race was called with the Republicans being predicted to have won all seven swing states in the Electoral College count and the majority vote.
To the chagrin of many, Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States and his term begins on January 20th, 2025 at his inauguration outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.
