The Political Conversation

As Gallup finds that only 28% of people consider themselves Democrats, the eminent historian Michael Kazin’s fascinating new book What It Took To Win asks if “college educated cosmopolitans in search of a majority” have driven out ordinary working people — the people we need to win. 

Michael Kazin is a distinguished professor of history at Georgetown University and Co-Editor of Dissent magazine. While a student at Harvard in the 70s, Kazin led Students For A Democratic Society and today he is a member of Democratic Socialists of America. He is the author of Barons of Labor, The Populist Persuasion, and America Divided.

Michael Kazin introduces the concept of "moral capitalism" while discussing his new book, "What it Took to Win." Kazin is a professor of history at Georgetown University and editor emeritus of Dissent.

His books include American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation, The Populist Persuasion, and A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History.

As party loyalty declines, independent voters are becoming a powerful force in politics. In this video, we'll discuss the rise of independent voters and the impact they're having on elections, as well as the impact that extremely polarized or calcified politics is having on the voting public. We also discuss that in 2022 no candidate who lost called for an insurrection to overturn the results.  Is the fever breaking?

Today, politics feels both stuck and explosive, as both parties are becoming increasingly unrecognizable to the majority of voters. According to Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist at UCLA and leading researcher into the electorate, it has to do in no small part with this: Most voters identify as moderate, whether a moderate Republican or a moderate Democrat. She describes the state of our politics as "calcified", and her extensive research and analysis for her book The Bitter End serves as a guide into what the 2024 election has in store. 

After Obama was elected, Ruy Teixeira and his co-author John B. Judis were hailed as having gotten it right— in their 2002 book "The Emerging Democratic Majority", they accurately predicted the coalition on the rise to carry Democrats to a majority.  Today, the revered political strategist has a different message, or rather, a question: "Where have all the Democrats gone?" Since Obama's second term, the Democrats have rapidly lost white working class voters; in some crucial election states, Biden is under water by 20 points with this crucial demographic. According to Ruy, Democrats embraced "cultural radicalism", making them unpalatable to the median voter. Now, non-white working class voters are also moving away from the Democratic party; especially hispanic working class voters. In our conversation, as in his book, Ruy shares his insight into why this shift has happened, and what comes next. 

"We need a system for deciding who gets in and who does not. That's not cruel, it's just rational."

Meet Ruy Teixeira, political demographer, commentator and author of the deeply influential 2002 book "The Emerging Democratic Majority" with co-author John B. Judis. Today, he has a new book out: "Where have all the Democrats gone?" with the same co-author, and a very different message. 

Encounters at the border have tripled since Trump left office, and for Teixeira, the reasons why Biden's approval rating on immigration hangs around 23% in some battleground states are obvious: The Democrats have moved too far away from common sense immigration policies that the median voter can agree with. 

We get into it in this conversation. 

Part 2 of our conversation with Melissa Kearney. Listen to our episode titled "What is happening to marriage and families in the US?" for part 1.

Melissa Kearney, a professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, argues that "we can't keep ignoring the fact that the share of kids raised by one parent is rising — especially among lower income families, and that this is having an impact on the economic mobility of those children."

Kids who grow up in two-parent households tend to have better outcomes, both in young adulthood and later in life.

The New York Times immediately dubbed Kearney's research a blind anti-feminist argument for entering into or staying in a marriage — but this, of course, entirely misses the point. Her research is thorough, nuanced, and clarifying.

What is happening to marriage and families in the US? Listen to Kearney's answer. 

Melissa Kearney, a professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, argues that "we can't keep ignoring the fact that the share of kids raised by one parent is rising — especially among lower income families, and that this is having an impact on the economic mobility of those children."

"Kids who grow up in two-parent households tend to have better outcomes, both in young adulthood and later in life."

The New York Times immediately dubbed Kearney's research a blind anti-feminist argument for entering into or staying in a marriage — but this, of course, entirely misses the point. Her research is thorough, nuanced, and clarifying.

What is happening to marriage and families in the US? Listen to Kearney's answer. 

Rob Atkinson, who has advised George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden on how to promote the high tech industry, just wrote in the Asia Times: 

“The Chinese Communist Party has made manufacturing robot adoption a top priority, backing it up with generous subsidies. To the extent US policymakers talk about robots, it is usually to criticize them for taking jobs.”
In my conversation with him, Atkinson advocated an aggressive industrial policy to boost productivity and economic growth even if it displaces workers with, yes, robots.  We tussle on that question as well as with the perspectives of impactful economists like Dani Rodrik of Harvard, Daron Acemoglu of MIT and Brad DeLong of Berkeley—now is a great time to revisit their episodes on this podcast.
This conversation is part of our ongoing investigation of ways to restore the vitality of our middle class.

Since June, President Biden has campaigned on Bidenomics, making the argument that he's in charge of the economy and things are looking up.
He’s right that the economy will play a crucial role in the coming election—but not in the way he currently imagines.
Listen to this 15-minute episode that engages with several prominent perspectives, taking stock of the discourse and offering a distinct perspective focused on the voters we need most in 2024: young people.