Our American Discourse, Ep. 25: In Defense of Our Political Party System (Sort Of)

A government shutdown doesn’t inspire confidence. Politicians, their parties, and the leaders of those parties all get a hefty amount of blame from the American people. But you know that Winston Churchill quote about democracy being the best system except for all the others? It turns out there’s some truth to that. With today’s guest, we ask where all this gridlock comes from, what we can really do about it, and whether politics really deserves all the blame it gets.In this episode, Thad Kousser reveals some surprising facts about the political game and some useful tips for the American electorate to play it well.

Prof. Kousser is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the co-editor of the journal Legislative Studies Quarterly. He is the author of many articles and multiple books, including the most recent edition of The Logic of American Politics.To listen to this episode of Our American Discourse, click the orange arrow in the Soundcloud player at the top of this post. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, Google Play, or Stitcher.==========“Our American Discourse” is produced by Aubrey Hicks, Jonathan Schwartz, and myself, and mixed by Corey and Ryan Hedden.