Primary Enemies (Part One)

In the 2020s, centrists who had controlled the Democratic Party for thirty years found themselves under siege from insurgents led by an unlikely group: the Democratic Socialists of America, a nonprofit organization which had been an insignificant speck in the political landscape just a few years earlier. This episode covers the Democrats' founding in the 1820s, their spectacular power in the early 1960s, and their almost complete collapse in 1968. In the years that followed, factions gathered around two men who tried to redefine the Party: liberal Senator George McGovern, and party insider Alvin From. McGovern led a grassroots movement of idealistic liberals who believed in transparency, diversity, and reform. From led a group of powerful insiders who believed the only way for the Party to win was to turn its back on everything it had fought for.