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Historian Timothy Shenk joins us for a conversation about his new book, Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics, a timely look at political strategy on the liberal-left as the New Deal Consensus cracked up in the late 1960s and 1970s through Bill Clinton's presidency and beyond. He tells the story of how Democrats responded to class dealignment through the careers of two consultants, Stan Greenberg and Doug Schoen—a story that, following these two men, also takes us to the UK, Israel, and South Africa. We discuss what happened to the New Deal coalition, arguments about how to appeal to working class voters drifting right, the limits—and necessity—of polling and even focus groups, why Bill Clinton's role in the rise of neoliberalism is more complicated than you might believe, lessons for the American left from their being crushed in Israel, and what all this might mean for 2024.

Sources:

Timothy Shenk, Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics(2024)

Douglas E. Schoen, Enoch Powell and the Powellites(1977)

Stanley B. Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development(1980)

"Explaining McCarthy," TIME, April 18, 1969

Listen again:

"Realignments (w/ Timothy Shenk)," Know Your Enemy, Feb 27, 2023