BPL Debate: Can Democrats Win Back the Working Class?

For generations, the Democratic Party was known as the party of FDR and the New Deal. Millions of workers from all backgrounds rewarded it with their votes. 

But with great shifts in how the two major parties campaign and seek to engage working Americans, can Democrats win back working-class families?

The Nation’s Bhaskar Sunkara says yes, Compact’s Matthew Schmitz says it’s too late.

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Matthew Schmitz is a founder and editor of Compact. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, First Things, and The American Conservative, for which he is a columnist. He holds an A.B. in English from Princeton University and is a native of O'Neill, Neb.

 

 

 

 

Bhaskar Sunkara is president of The Nation Magazine, and founder and editor of Jacobin, which he launched in 2010 as an undergraduate at George Washington University. He has written for the New York Times, the Guardian, VICE, and the Washington Post. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.