Correction: This piece has been updated to note that a recording of the webinar will not be posted to the CLAS website. The video link will only be sent to those that registered for the event.

DeKALB – Former New Jersey Governor and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman believes the country is losing its most important parts of democracy.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences invited Christine Todd Whitman to be a speaker for the Rebuilding Democracy Webinar Series. 

NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has hosted its Rebuilding Democracy Series since 2020. The most recent webinar speaker is Whitman. 

Todd Whitman currently co-chairs the board party of the State’s United Democracy Center. She also works alongside the Joint Motion Commission, the Initiative Leadership Council and the National Institute for Civil Discourse. 

She has served as an advisory board member for the Voter Protection Project and as co-chair of the Commission on the Rule of Law and Democracy at the Brennan Center at New York University. She has served as president of the Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm specializing in energy and environmental issues. 

The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Robert Brinkmann hosted the webinar and participated in discussion with Todd Whitman. Brinkmann briefly explained the importance of holding their Rebuilding Democracy Series.

“To build a bipartisanship approach to having conversations about the role of democracy, making sure that all voices are heard, making sure that we allow civil discourse in this messy democracy,” Brinkmann said. 

The conversation included topics of civil engagement, bipartisanship, the role of federal and state governments in environmental justice and much more. 

When asked about her opinion of the current state of the country’s democracy, Todd Whitman answered with disappointment. 

“I think we’re very close to losing the most important parts of our democracy, such as the respect for the rule of law, the protection of the individual, the freedom of individuals to choose how they want to live,” Todd Whitman said. 

Todd Whitman emphasizes the importance of looking at local governments and their civil discourse for examples of what a healthy democracy looks like. 

“They will voice their opinions strongly, but at the end of the day, they want to see the problem solved, and so they’re willing to step back a little bit and accept that it may not be solved in exactly they way you want it, but at least you’ve got people that you know are there to do that, to represent you,” Todd Whitman said. 

On the issue of bipartisanship, Todd Whitman believes that the federal government, congress specifically, is not up to par with democratic standards.

“Newt Gingrich started it back with the Contract with America. He started it when he determined that when he was a leader in the House, and he said that they had to separate Republicans and Democrat freshmen so they didn’t go through orientation together,” Todd Whitman said. “They always used to go through orientation together, so they got to know one another, and you know, once you know somebody, then you have a relationship, you can talk and you can solve problems. So, that’s when it started that every issue is looked at through the partisan political prism rather than the policy prism.” 

Todd Whitman also gave her opinion on what the role of a regular citizen is in wanting to end the division and to restore bipartisanship in the government. 

“One of them is to be involved,” she said. “I say that 70% of offices are not competitive. We’ve let that happen, and we’ve let that happen by not voting in primaries. I mean, the average voter turnout is about 10% still, not much more than that. That’s 10% of eligible voters that are making the choice for everybody else, and those are, by definition, the most partisan people.”

“And then you get to the general election and people say, I don’t like my choices, so I’m not going to vote. This has been feeding on itself, and it’s allowed the extremes to have more power, frankly, than they deserve,” Todd Whitman said. 

The webinar series concluded with a Q&A session, where Todd Whitman answered questions from the audience. 

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences holds these webinar series every semester. Their upcoming webinar will be on April 2 and will feature Naomi Klein, an award-winning journalist, as their guest speaker.