Episode description

Our first speaker will be Michele Margolis who is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.  Michele has a new book entitled From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity.

Michele believes that most political scientists misunderstand the role of religion and partisanship. The commonly held view is that religious people tend to vote Republican.  Michele believes that partisanship is the driving force and that Republicans want to be religious to fit in with their political ideology and correspondingly Democrats become more secular.

Our second speaker will be Julian Zelizer who is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University.  He has a book entitled Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich and the Rise of the New Republican Party.

Julian will talk about the rise of Newt Gingrich and his success of winning the HOUSE for the Republicans in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.  Julian will explain Gingrich’s political innovations like using C-Span, a Contract of America that nationalized a mid-term election, and aggressive use of ethic rules toppled the Speaker and led to a Republican victory.  I think the 1994 mid-terms has important similarities for the upcoming mid-term elections.