'With All Due Respect to the Author, I Don't Know What's He's Smoking!'

Last Wednesday, Jay Cost was on Tom Ashbrook's NPR show  On Point to discuss his new book, Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic.  Here is the link to the audio, which lasts about 45 minutes.

It was a great conversation, and Ashbrook's questions were tough but fair. Naturally, the NPR audience was more than a tad skeptical of Jay's claim that the Democratic party has stopped being the party of the people and is now the party of special interest carve-outs.

The best line from a caller? "With all due respect to the author, I don't know what's he's smoking!' He thought Jay was nuts!

Also appearing on the show was Marc Heatherington, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and one of the nation's top scholars on political polarization. He offered some smart, skeptical comments.

And buy Jay's book-- Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic-- here.