American Democracy at the Crossroads
January 16, 2023
In this data-driven essay collection, New York Times columnist Edsall (The Age of Austerity) sheds light on shifting voter demographics before, during, and after Donald Trump’s presidency. Contending that partisan realignment sparked by the civil rights movement (working-class whites without college degrees became increasingly Republican, leaving the Democratic agenda to be set by the “knowledge class”) paved the way to Donald Trump’s presidency, Edsall presents data showing an increasing correlation since the 1960s between voters’ attitudes toward race, gender, and sexuality and their party affiliation. Analyzing Trump’s march toward securing the Republican nomination in 2016, Edsall claims that rural and working-class voters were motivated by the same forces they had been in 2010 and 2014—anger at the “undeserving rich” and the “undeserving poor.” In a 2018 column, Edsall writes that Trump “appears to be gambling that letting those voters’ lives continue to languish will work to his advantage in 2020.” Skillfully parsing polls, Census Bureau statistics, and other data sources, Edsall provides essential context for understanding blue counties that went red in 2016, how an influx of wealthy voters has remade the Democratic Party, and why Trump made gains among Latino voters in 2020. Wonky yet accessible, this is a valuable guide to America’s political landscape.