HeyJaredThe Vital Center
Both the Republican and Democratic parties are struggling to defend the political center against illiberal extremes.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 2
- Latest publication
- Aug 17, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
Richard Nixon's elusive totality, with Lee Huebner (opens the original)
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Huebner remembers episodes from his time in the White House, describes the conflicts between the moderate and conservative impulses of the administration, and assesses Nixon's key strengths as a speechmaker. He shares his insights into what it takes to be a successful presidential speechwriter, and reflects on how history will remember Nixon, for good and ill.
Can Democrats win back the working class, with Joan Williams (opens the original)
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As Joan Williams observes in her recent book Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, as recently as 2010 Democrats still represented a majority of working-class districts. But in the decades since, the two parties have traded their political bases, with Democrats increasingly becoming the party of the college-educated professional classes; the percentage of Democrats who are college grads almost doubled between 1996 and 2018.
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