A Wall Street Journal best political book of 2023
“John Judis and Ruy Teixeira are the two preeminent scholars of liberalism and the Democratic Party. Over the past several decades, they have chronicled the vicissitudes of the American left with unmatched skill and insight. Where Have All the Democrats Gone? captures the fragile state of the party at a critical moment and joins the ranks of Theodore White’s The Making of the American President 1960 and Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes. A deeply informed and beautifully written work of reportage and scholarship, this volume is brilliant, indispensable and simply the best analysis in decades of America’s urgent, fraught politics.”
—Thomas Edsall, columnist, The New York Times
"Where Have All the Democrats Gone? gives a pretty persuasive explanation—one that should be read as a warning."
—Pamela Paul, The New York Times
“If, like me, you are terrified by the prospect of a second Trump presidency, you need to ask yourself just how, despite seemingly favorable demographics, the Democratic Party became so vulnerable to populist attacks. In Where Have All the Democrats Gone?, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira’s brilliant and levelheaded intervention into the fraught debate around identity politics and polarization, two of our best political minds make a clear and persuasive case for how and why Democrats must win back the trust and partnership of the working class. It’s a What’s the Matter with Kansas? for the contemporary left and just in the nick of time.”
—Thomas Chatterton Williams, contributing writer, The Atlantic
“Over the last half century, Democrats went from being the unified party of working people to a fractured collection of interest groups. With an unparalleled understanding of political history and practice, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira tell us how and why identity politics trumped class, and what the Democratic Party must do to regain its strength—and its soul.”
—Rana Foroohar, columnist, Financial Times
“Twenty years ago, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira brought optimism to a gloomy Democratic Party by writing The Emerging Democratic Majority. Now they are back with a stern warning to the party they love: If you don’t want to return to minority status, stop ignoring the working-class voters who have always been the heart of the party.”
—Nicholas Lemann, staff writer, The New Yorker
"If there is one book all the senior members of President Joe Biden's reelection campaign should read it is John B. Judis' and Ruy Teixeira's brutal and brilliant Where Have All the Democrats Gone?... an excellent analysis of the changing shape of electoral politics."
—Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter
"A rigorous dissection of how and why the once formidable Democratic coalition has fallen apart. . . In a deft blend of the big picture and micro reporting, Judis and Teixeira explore the options for rebuilding the Democrats as a party for working people."
—Financial Times
"Judis and Teixeira deserve credit for taking a brave stance.... Democrats would be wise to consider this book carefully."
—Reihan Salam, National Review
"An important new book counsels a return to the New Deal philosophy of fighting for the common man, upholding equal opportunity instead of identity politics, and not sucking up to Wall Street and Silicon Valley."
—Kenneth S. Baer, Washington Monthly
“Teixeira and Judis are here to give some tough love to Democrats on what it takes to win in today’s tribalized landscape. The Trumpified Republican party poses an active threat to democracy, so Democrats—for now—are the last best hope for fixing our broken politics. But to do that, the authors argue, they’ll need to abandon their addiction to identity politics, and instead lean into pragmatic problem-solving. Prescient and timely, this is a must-read for anyone who is serious about building a durable pro-democracy majority.”
—Sarah Longwell, publisher, The Bulwark
“John Judis and Ruy Teixeira’s 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, induced a misplaced confidence in those influenced by a one-sentence summary of its contents. The detailed account provided in their new book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone?, shows how complacency about the inevitable victory that demographic change would deliver to a party at once committed to the preferred economic policy of Wall Street and Silicon Valley and to increasingly esoteric cultural fantasia (concerning race and gender) undid the ruling coalition that was theirs to lose in the early 21st century. This is a must-read for those seeking to understand the last two decades and what those decades portend for the future.”
—Wesley Yang, author of The Souls of Yellow Folk
"Revealing. . . . John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira make an argument both sober and bracing that anyone who cares about the future course of American politics should take seriously."
—Michael Kazin, The Liberal Patriot
"Immensely valuable for any observer of American politics... As the United States veers towards what could be the most contentious election in the country’s history, these brilliant minds explain better than anyone else exactly why it is surely going to be incredibly close."
—Mercator
★ 2023-07-19
Two respected political analysts look at the shifting landscape and find much to worry the Democratic Party.
At first glance, this would seem to be an odd time for this book. The theme is that the Democrats are in trouble, which is strange to think about when the party holds the White House, the Senate, and two dozen governorships. However, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Judis and Talking Points Memo editor at large Teixeira focus on the broader trends underlying political changes. They acknowledge that their allegiance lies with the Democrats, and they are displeased with what they see as the party’s radical turn to the left. In an influential 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, the authors argued that Democratic-leaning ethnic minorities would grow while the Republican base would shrink, but they emphasized that the Democrats would have to actively court votes from the Latino and Asian American populations, while striving to keep white, blue-collar voters. This critical point was often ignored, and the past decade has seen large chunks of these groups switch to the Republicans. Teixeira and Judis examine the Democratic “shadow party” of foundations, lobby groups, quasi-socialist academics and Wall Street donors, which loudly pushes an agenda of identity politics and free trade that is out of alignment with mainstream values. Attacking anyone who disagrees as a deplorable racist does not help to win support. Joe Biden has tried to distance himself from the extreme end of the spectrum, but the rot runs deep. The strongest card for the Democrats seems to be the unpopularity of Trump, but that will not be enough to overcome the long-term impact of the trends the authors analyze. The obvious solution is for the party to move back toward the center, but the authors do not sound optimistic about it.
Backed by solid research, this book sounds a powerful warning that should resonate throughout the Democratic leadership.
