David Leonhardt on Why the Left isn’t Reaching the Working Class

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk

News

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Leonhardt is an editorial director for New York Times Opinion. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Leonhardt discuss why the left is losing its appeal to the working classes in the United States and in Europe, the flaws in the Democratic Party’s approach to voters, and what U.S. Democrats can learn from the Social Democrats in Denmark. Note: This interview was recorded on March 18, 2025. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm making a robot head with an Amazon box.
0:03.0	I've painted it silver and Daddy helped me make it.
0:05.0	At Amazon, we're actually using paper bags for more of our deliveries.
0:08.0	And now I'm making a paper hot air balloon
0:11.0	and I even made a little brown basket
0:13.0	and I'm making a dog that looks just like Monty.
0:16.0	Just one of the ways we've reduced the weight of our packaging by more than 40% since 2015,
0:20.0	which is still good for playtime.
0:22.5	Mom, where's the scissors? To learn more, visit about amazon.com.com.com
0:28.3	slash sustainability. I think there is a threshold question for many voters of, are you one of those
0:35.3	elite liberals who doesn't care about border security, who is
0:41.0	all in favor of all these changes on gender, for example?
0:45.5	And I think when Democrats come off as someone who's a little bit more from a faculty lounge
0:50.5	than a union hall on some of these cultural issues, they are really going to struggle
0:55.7	to win back working class people of all races.
0:59.9	And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.
1:04.5	In the last months and in the last days, there's been a lot of debate about how the Democratic
1:15.5	Party can win back the working class, including a much-marked description of a fancy five-star
1:23.7	get-together with all of the chic appetizers in California,
1:29.4	in which the grantees of a party try to figure out,
1:32.3	why is it that ordinary people are not in tune with us?
1:36.6	Well, a few months ago, actually, I had a great guest on to discuss this question.
	...

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