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<p>Partisans may have praised or panned President Donald Trump&#8217;s State of the Union, but two political science professors at the University of Scranton agreed that, aside from a few moments, the speech exemplified how predictable the event has become.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re at the point, two years into his presidency, that the State of the Union isn&#8217;t going to change anyone&#8217;s mind on how good of a job he is doing,&#8221; political science department chair Michael Allison said.</p><p>&#8220;It was the typical display of partisan politics that has become the State of the Union,&#8221; Professor Jean Wahl Harris added, noting the party of the speech giver routinely breaks out in applause, and that the practice of introducing people in the audience &#8220;to put faces to vital problems has become the norm.&#8221;</p><p>Both said Trump did well in sticking to the teleprompter and offering some sort of olive branch to opposition Democrats, but that he fell short in important areas.</p><p>As a professor who specializes in immigration and has traveled multiple times to the &#8220;Northern Triangle&#8221; countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador &#8212; the primary source for many asylum-seeking immigrants to the United States &#8212; Allison said Trump&#8217;s emphasis on a physical wall along the border is not the solution to the immigration problem.</p><p>&#8220;I believe it would be an environmental catastrophe that disrupts water flow and wildlife, and if he&#8217;s really sincere about wanting to reduce undocumented immigration, it&#8217;s not going to be very effective,&#8221; Allison said. &#8220;Over half of those in the country illegally came here legally, and overstayed their visas.&#8221;</p><p>He also cited the oft-repeated statistic showing illegal crossing peaked at 1.6 million nearly 20 years ago and has dropped to about 400,000 a year or less, though &#8220;the composition of those coming is much different. It used to be very highly dominated by men coming to work, but since 2014 and a little before that, there has been a much larger percentage of women and children. They are coming to the border to at least try to apply for asylum.&#8221;</p><p>He also noted the situation in El Paso cited by Trump was not proof a wall works. Trump contended the city saw violent crime plummet after a wall was built, but Allison said &#8220;they improved the security situation years before&#8221; that wall was erected.</p><p>Allison noted he is not affiliated with either party, and &#8220;never met anyone who advocated for open borders.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;There are serious challenges posed at the U.S.-Mexico border,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I just think there are more viable solutions than investing millions of dollars in a wall.&#8221; He suggested Trump could get major support for border security and immigration reform if he stopped stressing the wall and demonizing immigrants.</p><p><strong>Abortion</strong></p><p>As director of Women&#8217;s and Gender studies, Harris said she was surprised by Trump&#8217;s decision to speak forcefully on abortion.</p><p>&#8220;Politicians usually stay away from that because it&#8217;s such a controversial issue. I think he was trying to tap into his base.&#8221;</p><p>Similarly, she suspected the pronounced comments on socialism played to the base while jabbing at the newly-elected female contingent of Democrats in the crowd wearing white in homage to the Suffragette movement. She felt Trump handled himself well when those women reacted unexpectedly to comments about more women in the workforce, and in Congress, than ever before. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think he was expecting that.&#8221;</p><p>Harris said discussions Wednesday with students about the speech turned to issues they felt were omitted, including climate change, gun control and voting rights. They also pointed out that while Trump spoke at length about anti-Semitism, &#8220;he didn&#8217;t talk about other &#8216;isms,&#8217; especially racism.&#8221;</p><p>Both professors agreed Trump hit on a wide range of topics, including some bipartisan issues like infrastructure, the opioid crisis, and that he backed some things Democrats typically champion such as paid family leave.</p><p>But both said the speech was short on specifics &#8212; another hallmark of most modern State of the Union speeches.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Allison </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Allison_Michale_PHD_USE.jpg</photo0><caption0>Allison </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Jean_Harris_PHD.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Harris </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Jean_Harris_PHD.jpg</photo1><caption1>Harris </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Political science professors weigh in on Trump’s State of Union speech