Divider in Chief: Professor Smith's Book Explores the Polarized Presidency

SF STATE NEWS -- Political Science Professor Robert C. Smith’s latest book, “Polarization and the Presidency: From FDR to Barack Obama” (Lynne Rienner Publishers), offers fresh insights on the decisive, and often surprising, role of presidents and presidential candidates in polarizing U.S. politics. Smith wrote the book with Howard University Professor Richard A. Seltzer. “You now have this almost irreconcilable difference between the parties, where one wishes to raise taxes on the wealthy to expand the welfare state and the other wishes to do the opposite,” Smith tells SF State News. “... The polarization is about real issues in terms of the future of the country, it’s not a matter of personality or a matter of people not being able to get along. The Democrats and Republicans have serious differences as to how the country can be governed.”