Why One of America's Leading Socialists Is Worried About His Movement
About this episode
Klein speaks with Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and new president of The Nation, about why American socialism has narrative power but little electoral power. Sunkara describes the left as being in 'purgatory': far stronger than a decade ago, but stuck after Bernie Sanders's 2016 insurgency, with its gains concentrated among educated, urban progressives rather than the working class. They discuss 'class dealignment' — the collapse of the assumption that low-income voters reliably vote left, and why voters without college degrees are drifting Republican. A Jacobin survey of working-class voters, Sunkara says, shows they want bread-and-butter economics, neighborhood security and relatable candidates — not academic politics. The conversation covers lessons from Sanders 2016 versus 2020, what a Sanders presidency might have looked like, and why liberal governments struggle to build things.