Episode 564: Can we count on the Dems? MICHAEL KAZIN, WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN: A History of the Democratic Party

Former 60s radical and longtime editor of Dissent, MICHAEL KAZIN, has written a history of the Democratic Party. Acknowledging their challenging mix of constituencies and their messaging and policy failures, he believes they are at their best – and the US is the better for it – when they articulate and deliver on what he terms “moral capitalism” - an economy and a society that works for working and middle class Americans. The high point was the New Deal era of the 1930s-1960s. Can they win elections by playing that role again? Can they do it soon enough and well enough to save democracy and deal with the major crises we face?