We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America

How did we get here? America is divided as rarely before; the substance and spirit of the Age of FDR-"We Do Our Part," the motto of the New Deal's National Recovery Administration-seems irretrievably lost in the cacophony of the Age of Trump. With clarity and wit, the legendary editor Charles Peters explains the chasm that defines us today: the split between the educated elite and the working-class, rural and religious voters who live in what's condescendingly-but tellingly-known as flyover country. The beginning of the end of Trumpism will come when Blue State sophisticates honestly confront their own role in creating the political, economic, and cultural resentments that propelled the 45th president into office. Too many Democrats lost touch with the average American, Peters argues, when the liberal elite became more concerned with being smarter, having better taste, and making more money, than with understanding why workers were earning less, and hated being looked down on. It was this hatred of being looked down on as bigoted boobs in polyester that united the working class, rural, and evangelical voters, and helped set the stage for the culturally populist backlash of 2016 and beyond. If liberal Democrats want to win again, they need to be fair to everyone, including the working man who was once essential to the party of FDR. In We Do Our Part, Peters shows us where we have been and where we are going, drawing from his invaluable perspective as a man who has seen America's better days and still believes in the promise that lies ahead.