David Leinhart has done just about everything at the New York Times.

Today, he writes the morning, the Times flagship AM newsletter.

Prior to that, he was an opinion writer, a reporter, and a podcast host.

He's also won a Pulitzer Prize.

And now he's written a new book.

Ours was The Shining Future, the Story of the American dream.

Leonhardt's book examines modern economic history through the ideas of the New Deal's architects,

labor leaders like George Meany and Walter Ruther, and their intellectual opponents, conservatives like

Milton Friedman and Robert Bork.

As Leonhardt tells that story, he says the Democratic Party has made a politically risky left-word turn away from blue-collar voters

and towards highbrow progressive culture warriors.

And he has a warning for Democrats.

Their recent successes may be an illusion.

I don't think the Democratic Party should feel comfortable about where they are now and feel like they can just write off

the working-class voters including the Latino and Asian-American and black

working-class voters who have drifted from the party in the last five years.

At the heart of Leonhardt'sed from the party in the last five years.

At the heart of Leonhardt's history of the rise and fall of the American dream

is a story about how Democrats seated the loyalties of the working class to Republicans by not paying enough attention to the

average Americans concerns about crime, immigration, and economic progress.

It's also the story of big ideas that both parties embraced, like unfettered free trade

with China and permissive immigration, that Leonhardt argues haven't lived up to the promises

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