There's a tendency, especially among academics, to see politics as deeply dirty and deeply egotistical.

I think part of the reason the Tea Party has resonated is that people feel disempowered. The Tea Party says, "You are out of power because of big government." Then some Democrats tend to respond by saying, "No, you're wrong, you're not out of power." It's a sense that doesn't resonate with people's lived experience.

There's a tendency, especially among academics, to see politics as deeply dirty and deeply egotistical.

A lot of politics plays at the level of myth, and if you understand that, then you feel like you have access to the secret language of politics.

I feel much more comfortable in politics than I did in book writing. Book writing is so hard. Politics felt easy compared to that.

I tend to be a kind of left federalist. There's a value to more power of certain kinds being positioned at a more local level.

History is a series of mistakes. Now the task is to plan for those mistakes so those of us who are populists can actually take over the reins of power when the right mistakes are made.