Source: Politics<\/p>\n
David Leonhardt has done just about everything at The New York Times. Today, he writes \u201cThe Morning,\u201d The Times\u2019 flagship AM newsletter. Prior to that, he was an opinion writer, a reporter and a podcast host. He\u2019s also won a Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n
And now he\u2019s written a new book, \u201cOurs Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream.\u201d <\/p>\n
Leonhardt\u2019s book examines modern economic history through the ideas of the New Deal\u2019s architects, labor leaders like George Meany and Walter Reuther; and their intellectual opponents, conservatives like Milton Friedman and Robert Bork. <\/p>\n
As Leonhardt tells that story, he says the Democratic Party has made a politically risky leftward turn away from blue collar voters and toward high-brow, progressive culture warriors.<\/p>\n
And he has a warning for Democrats: their recent successes may be an illusion.<\/p>\n
At the heart of Leonhardt\u2019s history of the rise and fall of the American Dream is a story about how Democrats ceded the loyalties of the working class to Republicans by not paying enough attention to the average American\u2019s concerns about crime immigration, and economic progress. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the story of big ideas that both parties embraced \u2014 like unfettered free trade with China and permissive immigration \u2014 that Leonhardt argues haven\u2019t lived up to the promises made by their architects. <\/p>\n
On this week\u2019s episode of Deep Dive, Leonhardt joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to talk about how Democrats can salvage their relationship with the working class and how the American system could once again produce the economic and social progress that used to be the norm.<\/p>\n