Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton were using strategies to deliberately divide America's political system decades before the pivotal 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush divided us into gangs of 'red' or 'blue.'
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former President Bill Clinton were two colossal personalities with outsize ambition. Gingrich wanted to break the Democratic stranglehold in the 1970's on a Congress ruled for decades by Democrats. Clinton wanted to break the Republican stranglehold on a string of Republican presidencies broken only by Jimmy Carter.
The country that emerged from the mess in 2000 has become more divided than ever in 2018. Americans have chosen their respective tribes and dug in. Is there any way out of this mess?
Also this hour: We talk to a Native American scholar about what we can learn from Native American tribal nations. From a Native American perspective, American political culture is not becoming more 'tribal.' It is becoming more angry.
GUESTS:
- Steve Kornacki - National political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. He’s the author of The Red and The Blue: The 1990’s and the Birth of Political Tribalism
- Margaret Bruchac -Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator Native American & Indigenous Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She also consults with Native nations and museums through her restorative research project, “On the Wampum Trail.” She is the author of Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists
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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.