Overturn the democratic legislatures. Host anna harvey, professor of politics at New York University and the author of this book, a mere machine the supreme court, congress, and american democracy. Thank you. Guest thank you. Next we talk to patrick egan about this book partisan priorities in new york city. In the book professor eagan looks at the issues that the majority of americans agree with better handled by one party or the other and discuss what this means for politics. This is about 20 minutes. Host patrick egan, what do you teach at New York University . Guest i am in the Politics Department in the wagoner school. Host what classes do you teach . Guest i am on sabbatical which is a professors joy. But we do love our students. I teach Public Opinion courses and Qualitative Analysis to our ph d students. Host what is Qualitative Analysis . Guest is is numerical analysis of politics. Host what do you do an a sabbatical . Guest you write another book. Or that is one of the things you hope to do. Host are you encouraged to publish at New York University . Guest absolutely. As a university we have improved our stature over the last 1020 years because they attract faculty that is focused on research. Host what is your book on now . Guest how the gay people changed their Political Landscape and how gay people are responding to this huge change that has improved their life. Host what sparked that . Guest i have been doing a lot of research on lgbt politics over the last ten years. Ten years ago there wasnt much data about what gay people think about politics and partly because most polls never really asked anybody if they were gay or lesbian. It didnt appear on polls. That changed and we have a lot of data on how gay people vote and what they think about all kinds of issues, not just gay rights issues. And one thing that is interesting is gay people are staying liberal and democratic even as you start to see cracks in the republican parties full fledge opposition to gay rights. So you will probably continuing to see gay people be an important part of the Democratic Coalition even as the two parties converge on what they think and say about gay marriage. Host that fits into your current book partisan priorities. First of all, what is issue ownership . Guest glad you asked. That is a term that political scientist use and unlike other terms a lay audience will probably understand. And that is the two parties have longterm good repetitions associated with particular issues. So if i say to you health care and which party do you think Americans Trust to handle health care you say . Host a, i think the majority would say democrat. Guest that is right. I am not asking for your own opinion just americans. But that is right. We see that in polls taken consistently over the last 30 years. Host what is about health care that democrats own . Guest that is what the looks like. In the same poll, the New York Times did a poll asking americans which partly do you think does a better job at handling health care and the majority said the democrats. A few minutes later they were asked how do you feel about Affordable Care act and they hated it, continued to hate it by a substantial majority. So the policy is too extreme for the public. And i am interested in that paradox and the answer i arrived at after looking at historical and quantitative analysis is that voters award ownership to parties where for the efforts even if they dont necessarily agree or see results even. So a good example is crime. The republicans own crime. That is if we ask americans who party do you trust to handle that issue the majority say republicans and they have over the last four decades. That is despite the fact that if you looked at how crime rates rise and fall over the p presidency controlled by the president s crime fell further under democrats that know republicans. I would be the last person to say that is because democrats are better at the time because that is a difficult question and one i dont tackle in the book. But i say based on the evidence available to americans about how objective positions change when the two parties are in power. And there is no difference on the parties and which ones own the party and that is troubling for those hoping they can keep the issues accountable. Host has this led to a further issue of the hollowness in america because we are singleissue voters . Guest in the book, i explore conc e co co concensus issues and every liberal wants crime to be low and even if that is low on the list of priorities of the groups. The National Agreement around the goal of these issues means in a sense we are not quite singleissue voters. Everyone walking into the booth wants an efficient and lowcost health care system. They might disagree how to get there and might disagree on how important it is to other problems but most americans agree on the goal. So the politics issue ownership is really centered on these agreement issues because parties have every reason to establish good reputation at achieving low cost health care, clean water and other things that get wrapped up in the polarized politics, most americans agree around them. Host has there been issue ownership changes with the republicans owned and now the democrats to and vice versa . Guest they are pretty rare. Most issues since the 1970s havent changed hands. The parties will make a concerted effort to steal the issues or trespass on these issues. We can think about bill clinton and his crime bill or George W Bush and his education bill; no child left behind. They lead to significant but temporary shifts in the ownership of the parties. While no child left behind is being debated in Congress Republicans enjoy resurgeance in the publics estimation of how well they handle the Public Education issue and that goes back to two year earlier and the argument i made in the book is part of the reason that is the case is rank and file p republicans dont care about issu issues. Democrats want a low crime rate but they would list the environment, poverty and health care well above fighting crime as the big policy. So because the partisans priorities dont shift much ownership doesnt either. Host patrick egan, what happens if a politician is unorthdoxed in his or her party in position x. Does that cause issues . Guest it can. Voters of all strikes are making such Big Decisions based on the party brand. It is difficult for a democrat to run away from obamacare. The same thing is true for Republican Issues like Foreign Policy during the Bush Administration and that is individuals ride to run away from that and republicans tagged them with it. Because the parties have such a strong brand, that is one democrat is much more similar than that was true 3040 years ago. It has become difficult for politicians to separate themselves from the party. Host so if you are prochoice republican or prolife democrat what happens to you . Guest you are pretty unusual first of all. We could probably count on two hands the number of politicians in congress that could be described that way. One of the problems those Politicians Face is in their partys primaries. If you are seen as not being orthodox or as loyals would say unfaithful to the party groups interest they will mount a party that makes it more difficult and there are institutions in place that keep the Party Politicians towing a logical line and more and more that is usual. Host subtitle. How issue ownership drives and distorts american politics. What is the distortion . Guest the distortion i found in the book is i find lots of instances where the parties actually pay less attention to what the public want on the issues they own than on the issues they dont. So again the Affordable Care act is a great example. This is a policy that is pursued head long by president obama and particular nancy pelosi who she was speaker of the house, it is pursued that despite the facts this policy is unpopular, there are aspects of it that currently americans like, but when it comes down to specifically the mandate that you have to obtain Health Insurance and increase taxes that are being put on parts of system for the expansion of health care this is an unpopular policy. And the democrats pursued anyway and they did so because they have Party Loyalist for whom this is a once in a Generation Opportunity to get the thing they want which is something close to universal health care. The same thing is true if you look at George W Bushs tax cuts and part of this was poplar pause he enacted tax cut for the middle class and that was in line with the partys ownership of taxes but the bulk of the cuts came from relatively big cuts to the wealthiest american. And in poll after poll those cuts were very unpopular and remain so. So that is the argument about how issue ownership distorts politics and the paries have loyalist that care deeply and they push the parties in extreme directions on the issues they own because they care about them. Host on the reverse side, how do republicans convince lgbts that their interest is in the Republican Party or how do democrats convince seniors are with their party . Guest right. I dont have good news for you. The way that american politics is structured right now makes it very difficult for parties to come up with credible promises to those groups that have been excluded from their coalition. Here is an example which is president obama was going to have a big evangelical preacher at this first inauguration as exten extene extending a welcome to the evangelical christians that have stayed away. This leads to the democrats saying he is against the party against gay right and we have a problem and he is scratched from the inauguration. You see the same thunking thing on the republican side. Senator rob porter who is son is gay and he is one of the few supporters on that side of Marriage Equality and he was said to be betraying principles when he did this. So the extensions to the other side in the polarized error is risky for politicians and dont have a lot of upside often. So they are difficult to do and becoming less and less easyism reporter patrick egan, new york, partisan priorities thanks for being with us on booktv. Guest thank you for having me. Every week bookt