Episode 9: The Plague of "Burn It Down" Partisanship with Princeton professor Julian Zelizer

The Plague

Our current President and his party seem to be more interested in slandering their political opponents, propagating conspiracy theories, and fomenting division and distraction in our society, than in organizing a coherent response to the pandemic, the economic crisis, and other urgent problems that a competent and responsible government would address.

Have our politics always operated this way? Is this "burn it down" partisanship the same on all sides? Is this just the way the "rough and tumble" of political conflict usually works?

Our guest on this episode, Dr. Julian E. Zelizer, History professor at Princeton University and CNN commentator, refers to his new book, "Burning Down The House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party," to explain that this destructive trend in the GOP is relatively new and alarming. Zelizer traces the origin of this plague to the rise of Newt Gingrich in the 1980s and 1990s, and has clear and practical recommendations for what to do about it.

https://history.princeton.edu/people/julian-e-zelizer

https://www.cnn.com/profiles/julian-zelizer

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318517/burning-down-the-house-by-julian-e-zelizer/

Host and Editor: L.M. Bogad: www.lmbogad.com

Music: Jason Montero https://m.soundcloud.com/jamoja, and by my other friend named Jay

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