Expect republicans to bring to theg table . To explore the questions we have asked Timothy Carney a senior fellow at the American Enterprise institute and the publisher of this great book to come and talk about what he expects to happen. Tim think so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. I think we have to set the table of it in terms of where obviously o in the state of incredible hyperpartisanship. How did we get here and what are the theories behind what happened quick senior book you wrote as my colleague summarizes in the book review done key regions in Civil Society is strong and communities are doing well and twins of the societys even if theres an abundance of highpaying jobs and that sounds interesting community struggle. At the core of this is this institution whether it is government. Talk a little bit about why you put institutions at the center for polarization alienation in our country. Some of that became to me in the middle the night during occupy wall street. Went down on the concrete ground there. I did not sleep well so i got up and i took a census and what were they signed about . Summer about the bailouts and other problems with wall street corporate political power. I noticed almost none of the signs sites had anything to do with policies. They were all about how it and we heard disenfranchised in wall street banks have too much power and when i would talk to the occupiers id say is its about form policy or regulation and they kept saying no this is about the fact that we dont have a say over government. And if you watch Bernie Sanders and 2012 especially come i mean 2015 especially it was largely about that. Then you would go to trump rally and joseph stood in line for four hours to watch trump during the primary. He had never voted before. How do you go from not voting to standard line to watch a guy before a primary . Humans are political animals. I think a lot of the manifestation of bipartisanship is people are looking to washington. People arent as involved and they dont have as much opportunity to be involved. If i think about or you think about how you shape the world by theou times its youth coachg youth basketball or getting involved in your Public School or local library or government. Where people dont have access to the human level things like the impact of their political muscle they feel disenfranchised. They feel like they dont have the say on the national level. When you have access theres more chances of thats where youre more likely to have clashing. What do you do about that . How do we get people to do it . We were talking before its easy to be critical of people you have never met who dont share your viewpoint. That permeates from the halls of congress where they dont know each other anymore. The local level if you dont interactno with people so what o we do . If by we you mean washington d. C. There is an a limited amount that you can create a federal department of local tea fusion like mandate people join a bowling league. Its not a question of not getting of their rear and joining end joining. This institutions are fading away. They dont exist in some cases so its really hard. The main thing since alienated america came out and i went on a book tour we have turned away from just running programs and trying to build relationships. In that Nonprofit Community service. Theres a real push towards saying how do we get the single mother connected to a dozen other mothers in the neighborhood and all of them will benefit and have a lasting connectionon to neighbors and people in similar circumstances and people in different. Circumstances. I think labor unions makes them stronger institutions that ultimately is going to be about finding ways to reinvigorate local communities to build up these institutions that people belong to. There are plenty of places where people are plugged in but the pta in rural area and innercity neighborhoods and exist any more productive ptas in Fairfax County virginia where the are bursting. Yes. Followingfa up on that the pandemic people were locked in their homes and had huge economic impact. People went out of their way to help others. Couldnt do the 101 community development. There was plenty of clear all in this together like a window menu that you walk by. I dont even know who you are. There was a mix of people not being able to go to the local coffee shops and the little league. The way it manifested itself was then Mental Health that there were positives which we get so separated from her physical nextdoor neighbor. You hop in the car in your in a drive to work in a drive to the Shopping Center and we have more over the fence conversations in our neighbors in the first few months of a lockdown then in the last five years. There were some positive things. Oner the whole i think it was negative. Childrens Mental Health and showing up in trust and distrust. Some of the stories in media. No trust from younger reporters toward the older editors. You guys dont know what youre talking about. Editors build trust with their younger reporters is not by is the offhand question about where you are from or the offhand comment denoted a win its erate . Thats trust getsth built up wih the m. Person oneonone informal interaction. A lot more distrust and work places. I forgot to mention you are Twitter Facebook you can put questions in the chat at apc life. I want people think im on my phone during an event. With the current Political Landscape there are very serious divisions between the left and the right. What are the core differences . I mean their huge differences. One would be that, its tricky because they dont take it anymore about left and right in the ideological ways we have thought about it for the last 15 years because donald trump came in a reshaped what it meant to be a conservative. When i used to go to conservative Coalition Meetings if someone was in running for congress and entered the room the first question was guns in the second question was babies in the third question was taxes and thats all it was. S. Gun control abortion lot tax rates are essential issues but the culture war took on a different meaning ine the last five or six years. It was less about social policy like abortion and marriage and more about who is the bad guy . Donald trump got elected and if you remember that image is trump pushing cnn in the face. It became h less about policiesr philosophies that we could fight about that about beating one another. I think if we were to go to more coherent disagreements one thing among a lot of conservatives and not all of them but a lot of conservatives do believe we have to address this on a local level. I got into a debate with somebody you said no youre just trying to find some way to find national policy. Local committed toca trusting cohesion there is an going to be a solution. Theres a philosophical difference between the rightht f the left in can congress over make problems . Another is about the nature of our history and our country and our o culture. In Fairfax County virginia theres a massive fight with the school board. One shoes people say we need to use the Public Schools to break down the systems of oppression. Education has ways of enlightening people but when it manifested itself as we are going to make sure that you dont believe that step your parents believe this is how a lot of parents see it not just conservative parents. Wait a second i dont think the role of these institution is to educate my children away from that. Thats where see the main flashpoint. Its a really adjusting point about theiv local schools and it brings up a question i have. Its about your book and you do mention inhi your book going bak to institutions and communities where a lot of those are segregated communities and that is obviously the country itself is reckoning with racial inequality and how we address that. What do you say to someone whos concerned about restoring neighborhoods and local institutions about reinforcing that tendency of us to go to racially divided neighborhoods in such . To say a lot of neighborhoods in the past that were tightknit for also exclusionary is totally true but it doesnt count as an argument of him being attacked in your neighborhood. What we have to do is destroy localism because localism coexisted and was fed by racism is giving up and trying out the baby with the bathwater. So that the in america there have been very few communities that were cohesive and diverse along multiple dimensions. One of the things i point to is my old catholic parish in maryland. It is incredibly diverse racially economically. There were countries representative in the school. We would have amassed 20 or were they would greet us in every language and took them 20 minutes of creating because there were so many different languages representative by the kids parents or grandparents. How did this happen . Its a happy sad accident and bury them fault parents who said i won a Catholic Education for my kids and some of the more mormon or. Incredible diversity to kids learned about countries that didnt even exist when you were in elementary school. Eritrea was not a country and i had two classmates from there. You do have to have a common bond to have a Strong Community and you have to be united with some person. A higher purpose above and beyond priscillas educating our children. In the faith release of these values so that common purpose allowed us to bridge racial economic and other cultural divides so that hasom got to be think the key to establishing diversity and communityur is saying okay there needs to be a bond and there needs to be a common focus a common purpose and with got to make actual exerted efforts to make sure diversity works into this. Thats something that some conservatives dont like it we should be totally cut her blog colorblind and to affect that grounds. I dont buy into that for right of recent and especially if youve gone through we have gono through with his great diverse Catholic Education for kids. You see the value in that so it hasro to be explicitly sought after. Just because fishtown philadelphia used to be segregated doesnt mean there was wasnt something good about the Community Bond so how do we get the integration together . Great points. I want to pivot back to congress and why we are here today. If republicans, obviously we will have a divided governmentd because President Biden is still in the white house so what do you think republicans might address first and is it different from what you want them to address . The way Congress Works now is the job of the party that doesntt have the white house is to try to make the president at look bad and to block his agenda to pass messaging bills. Thats going to be a lot of what they do. They are easy ways to highlight ways in which joe bidens first two years have not gone well, inflation or ways the democratic parties raise has been in such a position thats so far to the left. I think abortion is one of those issues and i think they are otherhe cultural issues and republicans can highlight that. School curricula, i dont Want Congress to get involved. Thats one of things i expect presummit things you can do where we have seen bipartisan agreement and i have no idea if there would be more direct support for parents. You have mitt romney and marco rubio push and different ideas of the larger travelogues expanding the child taxbe credi. Thats where you think you could get right and left together, republicans and c democrats. A majority of both parties. Enough that it adds up to majority of both chambers. Expanding cash to parents. On this scored there is an interesting division in the Democratic Party were there some people who say we wanted subsidized childcare. Subsidizing childcare does a lot of good things but its mores subsidizing work and subsidizing families. Helping people get back to work which is good. Wouldnt itt be better to get cash and allow that family to make the decision . One of those is going to stop working for the next few years. A regal back to work parttime. That would be good for some families in some families would take that check and spend it on childcare. There is Division Even within the Biden White House and their sons does say the goal is for mothers to get back to work. Should it be up to the mothers or fathers to decide how and when they want to go back to work bikes thats where i see a bit of a divide. Less help for people with kids giving them some money should be something to address the problem is giving out more money in a time of high inflation is going to have bipartisan opposition as well. Is giving out more money at a time of high inflation is going to have bipartisan opposition at the same time so another place i would look at um are there tax breaks that are effectively just going to special interests and thats where in the past republicans conservatives had said government shouldnt pick winners and losers and democrats have said corporations are paying too low of taxes okay get together look for tax breaks a couple of areas where thet. One of the issues as conservatives that we get caught up in, you hear will have republicans still have a federal agenda. That part of that is as you laid out for the last several minutes a lot in our view a lot of stuff should be done at the state and local government and keep the federal government out of it. Then we focus on break reform and things like that. , as Kevin Mccarthy and Mitch Mcconnell are getting together and thinking through this is what were going to do thehe nexo two years but without trying to fan the federal government and push more of the stuff down to the stadium local level, how do they message that. Is a real challenge for conservatives and some of the laws that i oppose on the state level that republican governors are doing i actually agree with you this is how a local school should be run i disagree this is how the governor and state legislator should be setting a policy. Thats even more so on the federal level where i dont want a federal bill talking about what books are in certain libraries even though i agree theres no way that that should be in this library. My job to take care of that in Fairfax County where i built for a school board across the whole country. How do you do it, one thing is better articulating, eight, this is what we believe is good and thats good to be community, faith, family, work. B this is what the federal governments role is helping supporting or just creating the ground rules its going to be different. Strong Public Library setting important thing it doesnt mean the federal government should be subsidizing every local Public Library. Strong schools that partner with parents educating kids is absolutely key but that doesnt mean you want more of the federal role in local education. What are conservatives for is sometimes a funny question. Gr we know what were against on the national but what we are for is not only something that congress can do anythin about. Ill tell you what we are for, come to a potluck in the local and a local neighborhood and in america around the sunday morning the Greater Center toledo, massive gathering, a potluck and meeting ground, a muslim that moves them to toledo a massive muslim population, you dont have anybody go to theie islamic on sunday, this is what i am poor i am for people gathering together about faith, about community, about eating food, before all those things. Guess what not much congress can do pretty for Kevin Mccarthy and Mitch Mcconnell you talk about what your four and then its good to be slightly more nuance discussion of heres what congress can do about it which isnt that much. In your book you talk about unions. This is kind of surprising but you have a vision for how they can be reformed that traditionally democrat although weveto seen lately you certainy have a populist side of the Republican Party were some Union Members are supporting republicans. There is a window there, talk about your s new view of how ths works. Its funny a huge part of what a lot of the probusiness Republican Party has been doing for decades has been opposing unionization in a huge part of the Democratic Political and donor base but i think the alignment is not necessary. It has to do with the laws about u. S. Unionization where its not really voluntary on every level. The majority of workers in a certain shop or whatever vote to unionize in the importer has to represent the union and workers have to pay into the dues or theres a right to work line. Theres a legislative battle. The system in Northern Europe that i learned about while writing in americas unions are more voluntary they are the ones that sell and provide an employment insurance. If you are a worker you are going to join the union because i take an appointment insurance. Then they use the Bargaining Power and if you want to hire any of us you have to give us these conditions may do the collective bargaining and better benefits. They also act as Community Institutions that were talkedd about earlier Something Like a bowling or church. As for the working classe in america that is long been where they meet people and where you meet your spouse and have a mentor and mentee where you find your volunteering hours and your sense of purpose. All of that stuff can be in the union but is something you didnt exactly sign up for, you got the job and told you how t