Q&A Cafe Takes on Democratic, Republican Divide
By • October 21, 2024 0 62
Georgetown journalist Carol Joynt has been sharing exclusive and insightful information on the latest current events and newsmakers with Georgetowners since 2001 via her monthly Q&A Café at the George Town Club. On Sept. 17, she did one of her bravest Q&As yet—chatting with a top Democratic and a top Republican campaign strategist about their careers and how their days have been going the past few weeks as the election is now just days away.
Turns out that Joynt, Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne and Republican campaign communications surrogate Bryan Lanza are all friends. Their intertwining careers are remarkable. Their insights, civility, enthusiasm about politics and friendliness showed the audience live at the Georgetown Club and on YouTube that there are indeed smart and stable politically engaged adults in the room.
Etienne and Lanza are Westerners—she from a mixed African-American family in Texas and he from a Mexican immigrant community in California. They both realized that their professional skills in communication and concerns about the economy and foreign relations were leading them to jobs in politics, first locally then nationally. Etienne’s career evolved quickly in intense one-to-two-year jobs that evolved rapidly from a Texas Congressman to the Congressional Oversight Committee and impeachment inquiries to various increasingly senior positions with then-Vice President Biden, in the Obama White House, several communication positions with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to President Biden and Vice President Harris and now Harris’s presidential election campaign.
Lanza was close to his family who were extremely grateful to President Bush for “bringing my brother quickly and safely home from the Iraq War.” He felt most comfortable with the Republican plans to address the economic crisis of 2008, but also liked and was interviewed and accepted for an internship with former Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). But a paid job with a Republican senator persuaded the young father to go to Washington, D.C., where he has climbed the Republican career ladder with enthusiasm, working with the top campaign strategists and communications teams..
Joynt knew them both during the 2016 election and got to be friends. It was wonderful, she said, to find that they liked and were pleasant in each other’s company even though they would duke it out on “Hardball” and other shows Joynt worked on.
“This is the way it had always been in the past between partisan rivals,” Joynt said. “Sadly, it’s not so common today.”
The three opined that it was due to the issues becoming more polarized. As they portrayed their candidates’ rising numbers and prospects to win the 2024 presidential election, they both smiled patiently at the other one, obviously disagreeing but with no snide interruptive remarks.
That was not so true among the audience attending. Joynt was disappointed at the small turnout. “I had hoped to change the attitude here a little,” Joynt said.
At a table of eight ladies enjoying the salmon lunch and cupcakes, one woman said. “Well, I could never talk to anyone who voted for Trump in such a friendly way. I really don’t want to be around someone like that.” None of the at least two Trump voters at the table said anything.
“It’s a bit oppressive being a Republican in Georgetown,” several friends have told this reporter. Each election, a small percentage more of Georgetown voters cast Republican ballots for president, voting statistics show. Carol Schwartz had been a popular Republican Council member for years. But now there are none.
Joynt’s next Q&A on Oct. 29 will feature her former boss and anchor of “Hardball,” Chris Matthews.
