Politics Podcast: Why Politicians Love A Good Wedge Issue

Over the past year, many Republicans have repeatedly claimed that education has run amok under Democratic control and that parents need more say in the classroom. There have been debates about school closures, masking, transgender students competing in school sports and how teachers speak about race, gender and sexuality.

One could say that education has become something of a wedge issue – in other words, an issue with which parties try to split the opposing party in order to shake off new voters. In this episode of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Galen Druke speaks to political science professors Sunshine Hillygus and Patrick Egg about the history of the Wedge issues and how they shaped US politics.

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