New Class Divisions and the Meritocratic Left Beyond Your News Feed: Understanding Contemporary Politics

This episode features, Zachariah Wheeler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Providence College. We discuss his research on the evolution in coalitions within the Democratic Party, how elite discourse about class, race, climate change, and other issues have shaped those coalitions, and the way these changes reflect the impact neo-liberal ideology and globalization has had on American politics and culture. A main focus of our conversation is his recent paper entitled “The ‘Emerging Democratic Majority’, New Class Divisions, and the Meritocratic Left.”