‘The New Class War’: Michael Lind on the growing divide in US politics

The major fault line in American politics, argues Michael Lind, isn’t Republican vs. Democrat: It is the managerial overclass — the university-credentialed elite that clusters in high-income hubs and dominates government, the economy, and the culture — vs. the working class of the low-density heartlands. The two classes clash over immigration, trade, social values, and a range of other issues, and the constant triumphs of the numerically-smaller overclass are the primary source of political tension today.

To break down this conflict, and discuss how to solve it, we interviewed Michael Lind, author of “The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite.” Lind is the author of more than a dozen books of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, including “The Next American Nation” and “Land of Promise.” He has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New Republic, and The National Interest. He has taught at Harvard and Johns Hopkins and is currently a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

You can subscribe to Banter on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify, and archived episodes can be found at www.aei.org/tag/aei-banter. This is Banter episode #401.