For decades, center-left parties in the West have been moving right on economic issues. They have also become less oriented to the working class, growing their support among the affluent and highly educatedβwhat economist Thomas Piketty has dubbed the βBrahmin Left.β
Until recently, the U.S. Democratic Party has been no exceptionβleading to accusations, from both left and right, that it engages in culture wars at the expense of economics. In this issue, political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson say that trend is over: the Democrats have decisively broken with the politics of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
What explains the Democratsβ βU-turnβ on economics, despite their growing reliance on affluent suburban voters? Can it workβas both an economic project and a way of building power? And what does this transformation mean for the future of the partyβand a nation facing down democratic crisis
Hacker and Pierson lead a forum with responses from Jared Abbott, Larry Bartels, Bryce Covert, Ted Fertik & Tim Sahay, Heather Gautney, Lily Geismer, Representative Ro Khanna, and Dorian Warren & Thomas Ogorzalek.
Elsewhere in the issue, Barnett R. Rubin examines the relationship between Zionism and colonialismβand what it means (and doesnβt mean) for a political solution in Israel and Palestine. We talk with Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah and feature two poems he wrote after October 7. Plus essays on Walter Rodneyβs radical legacy, geopolitics amid war in Gaza, and more.
Full list of contributors: Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson lead a forum with Jared Abbott, Larry M. Bartels, Bryce Covert, Ted Fertik & Tim Sahay, Heather Gautney, Lily Geismer, Ro Khanna, and Dorian Warren & Thomas Ogorzalekβplus work by Noaman G. Ali & Shozab Raza, Abena Ampofoa Asare, Rachel Ida Buff, Helena Cobban, Fady Joudah, and Barnett R. Rubin.