Bill Kristol said the state of American democracy is “not great” right now. As someone who served as the chief of staff for former Vice President Dan Quayle during the George H. W. Bush admission, he self-proclaims as a “Never Trumper” since 2016.

The Price School of Public Policy hosted Kristol on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the state of America’s democracy. 

Kristol has been critical of President Donald Trump since the Republican nomination in 2016. He said this affects his view of the state of American politics but he does not place all of the blame on Trump.

“We’ve had 20-30 years of partisanship that became polarization. We’ve had, in my view, demagoguery from both sides,” Kristol said. 

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Kristol said he was against USC signing the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. Kristol said that during his time working in the federal government 40 years ago, the secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan, gave speeches about what universities should and should not do but did not think to threaten them with withholding funds. 

“I’m not in favor of the compact. I don’t think the federal government has terribly good judgment about what academic excellence is,” Kristol said. “I’m pretty hostile to the government intrusion here. … Now, I think [Gov. Gavin] Newsom has responded because he feels there has to be some leverage on the other side. And I do think that’s fair.” 

The Trump administration promised USC priority access to federal funding, among other incentives, if it signed the compact. Kristol discussed how authoritarians operate and how Trump is utilizing these methods. 

“Part of authoritarianism is not wanting there to be too many independent power centers, and obviously, universities have been our power center in America, among other things.”

In discussing the balance of power in the U.S., Kristol noted the number of one-party states that have increased over time, attributing the decline in bipartisan states to the political entrenchment contributing to the polarization of American politics. 

“When I got to Washington in ‘85, the Senate Republicans had a slight majority. Twenty-six of the 50 states had one Republican Senator and one Democratic Senator. If I’m not mistaken, right now there are three states left that have one senator from each party,” Kristol said. 

Kristol went on to say that the majority of state legislatures are now the same party as the Senate and House delegation.

“At this point, I would like to see weaker parties. … They’re now just instruments for their leaders,” Kristol said. 

Barry Heads, a graduate student studying public administration, said he welcomed the opportunity to hear from a public figure with whom he didn’t agree. 

“[Kristol] is known as a Republican, and I typically wouldn’t call myself a Republican, so I did want to hear an opinion outside of mine,” Heads said. 

As a person with experience in the California state legislature, Heads said he considers events like these to be valuable to the student experience. 

“From a student who has a political background and is studying politics at USC, it’s good for us to hear different opinions or opinions that come from the opposite end of the aisle,” said Heads.

David Brady, the chair of the department of public policy and management, asked Kristol to provide advice for students hoping to make a difference in politics. Kristol said that young people generally do not know much about themselves, let alone the world and advised them not to be too strict in what they want to do, because their opinions might change. 

“It is very unlikely that at age 20 you know what the world [is like]. It’s also unlikely that you have a terribly correct understanding of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and what you like doing,” Kristol said. “Learning as you go and being open-minded both about politics … but also about what you want to do.”