Egan Visiting Professor Yuval Levin spoke of the increasingly divided culture of U.S. politics in a Tuesday conversation at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
The event, titled “Civil Discourse in an Age of Polarization,” was hosted by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy and Polis: Center for Politics.
Levin joined Duke Jan. 1 as the sixth Egan visiting professor in recognition of his work relating to the media and contemporary issues. In the position, he is delivering a series of lectures throughout the year and teaching a course this fall.
Levin previously served as a domestic policy staff member in the White House under President George W. Bush. He is the founding editor of National Affairs magazine, director of social, cultural and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times.
Political polarization and deadlocks
After working on issues including the federal budget, welfare and domestic policy in the Bush cabinet, Levin observed that “politics looked more like a kind of partisan theater and less like the sorts of policy debates that [policy wonks] were trying to sustain and nourish.”
He began to examine political divisions in America more closely in work that first emerged as a graduate-level dissertation on political fragmentation and later culminated in his books “The Fractured Republic” and “A Time to Build,” published in 2016 and 2020, respectively.
According to Levin, the left-right ideological divide remains pressing but is no longer as significant as the “up-down divide,” which is indicative of the running tension between the public and its government leaders. He explained this as the result of political elites’ lack of competence, restraint and humility across party lines, which has led to a steep decline in the public’s trust in institutions.
Levin claimed that “polarization is not exactly the issue” in American politics despite its salience in public discourse.
“The big difference about 21st-century American politics is not polarization,” he said. “It is deadlock.”
He described this deadlock — the consequence of “50-50 politics” — as the result of both political parties being minority parties that focus on retaining an existing base as opposed to building coalitions to engage new supporters. Levin noted that, in the last two years, the margin of difference that determined the majority in the House of Representatives was under five votes.
“The incentives … have all turned against the kind of cross-partisan accommodation and bargaining that is the work of Congress,” said Levin. “… Congress’ dysfunction is the biggest problem in our system.”
In light of such political deadlocks, Levin emphasized the need for parties to build coalitions and seek compromise in order to create progress that is admittedly “frustrating, … slower and more cumbersome” but embedded in durable legislation.
The role of the presidency in American politics
“I think it's not likely that this coming election will be the most important of your lifetime,” Levin said of the presidential election this November. “… I don’t think democracy’s on the line.”
He argued that because of the “50-50” political environment, “whoever wins this election is likely to have very narrow congressional majorities … and [will] be unable to do very much that is very significant.” Levin added that “in a sense, the stakes are lower than usual,” given that “the most important promise that each [party] can make to its voters is not to be the other party.”
In Levin’s view, concrete political change is unlikely to take place unless the elected president were willing to engage in continued negotiations with the opposition party.
Levin suggested that presidents focus on legislative accomplishments in Congress instead of on “mak[ing] a lot of policy directly through regulation [and] administrative action,” since such sweeping changes tend to be unstable and are subject to reversal when a new administration takes power.
Levin cited the Civil Rights Act and Great Society program as examples of substantial policymaking achieved by a president, both of which were promoted by President Lyndon Johnson but were ultimately legislative changes passed through Congress.
“I think … our system can only work if it has Congress at its center, if the big decisions are made by the representative branch of our government,” he said. “The presidency is not it.”
Levin also warned of the dangers of public leaders like former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden speaking “recklessly” about the constitutional system and the legitimacy of the courts. However, in his view, institutions are “fairly strong” and “tend to resist these kinds of pressures.”
“Four years from now, you're probably going to be fine, and if you're not fine, it's probably not going to be because of the president,” he said.
When asked about his predictions for the 2024 presidential election, Levin shrugged.
“I have no idea,” he said.
In light of the race’s close margins, he expressed concerns about Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ impartiality in certifying the election’s results, a responsibility that falls to her as sitting vice president. However, he acknowledged that similar situations occurred in 1960 with then-Vice President Richard Nixon and in 2000 with then-Vice President Al Gore, saying that both politicians “went out of their way to assure the country that they did not think they had any role in deciding the result of the election.”
“I think it is very important that Vice President Harris do the same, whatever happens,” he said.
Creating civil discourse
In discussing the significance of the Constitution in American politics, Levin stated that it was built on the premise that disagreement is inevitable “in a free society.”
Levin believes the Constitution is crucial for facilitating cross-partisan compromise and preventing majority tyranny, as it seeks to answer the question, “How can we act together when we don’t think alike?” He cited the essay Federalist No. 10, in which Founding Father James Madison “insist[ed] that unity is possible because unity does not mean unanimity.”
Responding to a question from an audience member on the role of educational institutions in addressing polarization, Levin said that “the politicization of campus life is a tremendous problem for American society” because of the critical part universities play in maintaining democracy. He emphasized the importance of “creating some spaces where there can be internal diversity on campus,” which would “allow real debate to happen [and] freedom of thought to exist.”
Levin asserted that leaders of educational institutions like Duke have a responsibility to “model intellectual openness and diversity of thought.”
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Tanya Wan is a Trinity first-year and a staff reporter for the news department.