Transcript
PIETRO NIVOLA: So, this is my first point. Our polarization, it exists, it’s real, but it is pretty mild by historical standards and in comparison with various other countries.
Now, here’s another point I want to make. Partisanship actually gets a pretty bad rap, and it’s silly to give it a bad rap. I have a lot of respect for, for example, former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, but he wrote in the Post recently an article in which he spoke about the need to “cut out the cancer of partisanship.” Well, partisanship is not a cancer, I don’t think. Parties are essential to a viable democracy. Without them, you cannot organize politics. You can’t -- a democracy does not function without partisanship. And the more distinct the parties are, in some ways, the better. When there was not "a dime’s worth of difference”, as we used to say between Democrat and Republican candidates, it actually had a negative effect on political participation. Voters got bored by two parties that were too much alike. With the parties more polarized, they been energized, they’re engaged, and they’re turning out in much bigger numbers.
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