WTH Have All the Democrats Gone? With Ruy Teixeira

In 2002, Ruy Teixeira co-authored The Emerging Democratic
Majority. Now, two decades later, his new book is out
– Where Have All the Democrats Gone? So what happened
to the Democratic Party in those intervening years? A couple of
major factors stand out. First, the Democrats have bled
working-class voters – once the party’s base. This means that
your average Democrat today is not a UAW union worker, but
probably a middle to upper-class post-grad student at Harvard. Or
Colombia. Or U Penn. Second, the party’s mission has been
captured by extreme versions of wokeism, making progressivism
synonymous with total agreement with the far Left. And while the
Dems’ recent winning streak is attributable to the specific
alchemy of special and off-year elections – in 2024, it will be a
much bigger challenge to see how coastal elites and college grads
sustain the party.


Ruy Teixeira is a nonresident senior fellow
at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on
the transformation of party coalitions and the future of American
electoral politics. Before joining AEI, he was a senior fellow at
the Center for American Progress from 2003 to 2022. He
coedits “The Liberal Patriot” blog. His new book is Where
Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of
Extremes (Henry Holt & Company).


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