Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

Distinguished political analyst John Judis returns to The Commonwealth Club to share his wake-up call for Democrats, who he feels have lost sight of their core principles, endangering their own political future. For decades, American politics has been plagued by a breakdown between the Democratic and Republican parties, in which victory has inevitably led to defeat and vice versa. Judis says both parties have lost sight of the people at the center of the American electorate, leading to polarization and paralysis. In their book Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes, Judis and co-author Ruy Teixeira reveal the tectonic changes shaping the country’s current political landscape that many pundits and political scientists have missed. Judis says that the Democratic Party, once the preserve of small towns as well as big cities, of the industrial working class and the newly immigrated, has abandoned and even actively alienated many of those voters. He issues a clarion call fo