#325 In Defense of Partisanship w/ Julian Zelizer
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 629 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Partisanship. What is it good for? Most people these days would say, "Absolutely nothing." Julian Zelizer might reply, "Not so fast."
This week on the Road to Now we welcome backt to the show the Malcom Stevenson Forbes Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and CNN Political Analyst, Julian Zelizer to discuss his new book, In Defense of Partisanship. Zelizer argues that partisanship is not inherently detrimental to democracy. Instead, he contends that a healthy and vibrant political system requires robust and principled parties that clearly articulate their policy positions and engage in spirited debate. Through historical examples and contemporary analysis, Zelizer illustrates how partisanship has historically facilitated significant political and social advancements.
Zelizer posits that today we are dealing with the negative effects of hyper partisanship, and that rather than seeking to eliminate partisanship altogether, efforts should be made to foster a political environment where constructive partisanship thrives.
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Bob Crawford and this is the road to now. |
| 0:05.0 | Partisanship, what is it good for? |
| 0:08.0 | Most would say absolutely nothing. |
| 0:11.0 | But our guest today, Julian Zelzer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes class of |
| 0:19.0 | 1941 professor of history, CNN political analyst, also a guest host for Lower Coates on Sirius XM in the mornings. |
| 0:29.6 | He argues in his new book, in defense of partisanship, that the right kind of partisanship with the right reforms could actually heal our politics |
| 0:41.1 | and make things run a lot smoother in Washington, D.C. Great book. It's a short book. I recommend it to |
| 0:50.6 | everyone in defense of partisanship. What I love about this book is that Julian |
| 0:56.6 | not only gives us the history of the political parties, but he gives us a history of the legislative |
| 1:04.2 | branch and Congress and how the party structure that runs the presidential election and may win the White House |
| 1:13.1 | is often a very different party than the party who is serving in Congress. So anyway, |
| 1:20.7 | Julian Zelzer, in defense of partisanship. |
| 1:25.8 | Julian Zelizer, welcome to The Road to Now. |
| 1:28.5 | Thanks for having me. Nice to be with you. |
| 1:30.6 | It's a pleasure to have you here and celebrating your new book. |
| 1:34.3 | In Defense of Partisanship. In Defense of Partisanship. |
| 1:39.0 | I have to say it out loud. In defense of partisanship. |
| 1:43.0 | We've kind of trained ourselves, Republican, Democrat, |
| 1:47.7 | independent, partisanship's the problem. |
| 1:50.9 | Now there's a, yeah, that's the reaction I get all the time. And I knew with the title, |
| 1:56.4 | that would be the reaction. And that's part of the point of the book to go against some of the |
| 2:00.5 | conventional wisdom and join a long tradition of writing a, would be the reaction. That's part of the point of the book to go against some of the conventional |
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