Transcript
PIETRO NIVOLA: The subject of our discussion today is a notion that gets bandied about a great deal, but it really is poorly understood, namely that the politics of this country have become in some sense – and I'm going to put this between very big quotation marks – in some sense more "polarized."
Now before we can drill down into that question, let me just say a couple of things. First, trust me, we have not been overtaken by events, namely last November's election. This country is blessed with a remarkably resilient and supple democracy. And once again, I think it's showed its capacity to re-balance itself. And indeed, it is true that the new equilibrium does, to a considerable extent, reflect the pivotal votes and indeed the power of the electorates' vital center.
But let's not forget what this election was not about. It did not suddenly wave some sort of magic wand over our politics and banish once and for all the intense partisanship that we've seen in recent decades and suddenly sort of poof, kind of usher in an era of good feeling. Intense partisan contestation in this democracy, as in any other healthy one, is pretty hard-wired. And it's just a matter of time before we're going to be hearing about it all over again.
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