Doug Sosnik: The Realignment of American Politics—and its Implications

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2023

⏱️ 77 minutes

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Summary

How did American politics become so polarized—and what are the key fault lines today? In an evenly-divided electorate, what are the implications for the political parties as we look ahead to 2024 and beyond? Is there a way out of hyper-partisanship and deadlock, and toward moderation? To discuss these questions, we are joined by veteran political strategist Doug Sosnik , former political director for President Bill Clinton and author of a recent memo The Road to a Political Realignment in American Politics. As Sosnik puts it: In a sharp contrast to a previous era, college educated voters are now more likely to identify as Democrats, and those without college degrees – particularly white voters, but increasingly all Americans – support Republicans. Voting at all levels of federal and state elections demonstrates this overwhelming trend of the diploma divide. Whereas in the past the axiom that all politics is local rang true, these days the more accurate truism is that all politics is national. Sosnik draws out the implications of this divide for 2024 and beyond. He argues that the nature and intensity of our polarization means the premium for attracting swing voters, and not repelling them, is greater than ever. In sum, he argues that—more than any other single factor—the voters who decide the next elections will put a premium on candidates who are not crazy!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to Conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined today by Doug
0:19.8	Soznik, veteran political analyst and strategist, had very senior roles in the Clinton White House
0:27.1	political tractor and senior advisor to the president for I think six six years. I'm sure they
0:32.1	flew right by Doug and you know there's no chat no challenges no tension you know no no no issues
0:39.5	with impeachment or anything and but Doug was a key strategist in the in the kind of Clinton
0:44.0	Democratic world before that chief of staff to Senator Chris Dodd so he'll experience as well
0:50.0	major private sector clients over the last couple of decades including the NBA and I as
0:56.6	Yokech deserves all of his all of his fame and everything all all the publicity he's gotten
1:02.0	is due to you right Doug? Whenever you say Bill is Yokech just a nice guy he's in person as he
1:08.7	seems and in sort of in public? I haven't met him but I'm told by my colleagues who work there
1:14.5	that he is pretty much which he sees what you get it's it's fantastic I think anyway so Doug
1:21.0	has thought a lot about and written a lot about political re-alignment and in fact a recent
1:26.9	memo of his really caught my attention the road to a political re-alignment in American politics
1:32.6	I was struck by this was like something I was interested in back many decades ago when I studied
1:36.8	a little political science and Walter Dean Burdom wrote about re-aligning elections and I think
1:41.7	your argument is that there really is a re-alignment so anyway first thanks for thanks for joining
1:46.0	me today and I think people will learn a lot from this as a sort of analytical political science but
1:52.4	not in a political science-y way a study of what's going on in American politics so Doug thanks for
1:57.9	thanks for joining me right thank you it's great to be here so is I mean people have talked about
2:02.8	re-alignments and what what is the re-alignment what why is and why is this why isn't it just
2:09.8	a few things have changed but come on it's the same system you and I grew up in whatever 40 years
2:14.5	ago so walk us through a little bit what that re-alignment really is well I think there is a once in
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