Lamar Alexander: The Education of a Senator

Mike talks with former Tennessee governor, U.S. senator, education secretary, and presidential candidate Lamar Alexander about his new book, The Education of a Senator, and what his long career reveals about how American politics actually works. Alexander argues that while Washington’s “dysfunction screen” gets most of the attention, the Senate can still produce major bipartisan accomplishments when members build trust, respect institutional roles, and accept the slow work of compromise. The conversation covers the difference between executive and legislative leadership, the decline of social relationships in Congress, the rise of social media incentives, the erosion of Article I congressional power, the filibuster, federalism, impeachment, presidential relationships, and why Alexander still believes “the republic will survive” if more people choose to be builders rather than performers. Senator Alexander on X. The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices