“The Populist Explosion”, by John B. Judis, explains politics since 2008

In 1991, 26 years ago, Thomas Edsall, assisted by his wife, Mary, published an astoundingly relevant book, “Chain Reaction, The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics”, that explains how the Democratic coalition created by Franklin Roosevelt, active and dominant from 1932 through 1964, lost its focus on broad central concerns, and instead became subject to attacks from a revitalized Republican, conservative movement, that was able to peg the Democratic party and liberals as elitist, and government as primarily a force for the promotion of special minority rights and re-distribution for groups such as poor blacks, Hispanics and gays.   In the debate, taxes were positioned by conservatives as primarily an agent of re-distribution to these groups at the expense of the middle class.  Democrats, for their part, did not address these concerns, and instead focused on special interest politics (most recently on transgender bathroom access).  In the process, working and lower middle-class white voters were peeled away from the Democratic coalition to align (ironically) with traditional Republican policy-makers whose goals and practice has been to primarily benefit the very wealthy.

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