Party Lines Chris Maisano A Left That Matters Our still small but growing socialist movement now has a chance to make a real impact. The Soapbox Letters + Internet Speaks Our inbox at letters@jacobinmag.com is open to your effusive praise or ruthless criticism. Friends & Foes Meagan Day The Indifferent and the Defiant Battered by poverty and coronavirus, South Texas should have been deep blue turf for Joe Biden. It wasn’t. But in the Rio Grande Valley, the story is less about growing conservatism than about the rise of nonvoting—and despair. Means of Deduction Amtrak Train to Nowhere Vulgar Empiricist The Center for Working-Class Politics The 2020 Presidential Election and Working-Class Voters Our findings suggest that the 2020 presidential election represented a continued shift in the base of the Democratic Party from one rooted in working-class voters to a coalition that’s highly concentrated in high-income suburbs. Uneven & Combined Trump’s Surprising Working-Class Success In November, the Right continued to lose wealthy suburbs but made inroads in working-class counties. Reading Materiel I Think I Have a Much Higher IQ Than You, I Suspect Canon Fodder Daniel Bessner Don’t Trust the Process From his new memoir, it’s clear that Barack Obama believes process is politics. But no amount of “process” will solve the problems that plague us—for that, we need the political will he could never muster as president. Canon Fodder Chris Maisano Secession Planning A looser union with more room for state and regional autonomy, as two recent books advocate, would cede much of America to the mercies of the Right. Field Notes When Biden Met Hillarycare Records from the Clinton presidential archive give a revealing—and unflattering—look at the triangulating politics of Senator Joe Biden. Trumpism After Trump Feature Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger Don’t count right-wing populism out. While technocrats have seen their fortunes rise under lockdown, the sense of national decline and disarray that first brought leaders like Donald Trump to power still has a bright future. Where Boomers Party Till They Drop—Dead Feature Arielle Castillo Welcome to The Villages, where not even the coronavirus can keep retirees from their steady diet of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and Donald Trump. Illustration by Hunter French The Biden Doctrine Feature Nicole Aschoff As president, Donald Trump launched broadsides against the liberal international order. Will Joe Biden be able to put America “back at the head of the table” once in office? Illustration by Mark Pernice The Politics of a Second Gilded Age Feature Matt Karp The mass inequality of America’s first Gilded Age thrived on identity-based partisanship, helping extinguish the fires of class rage. In 2021, we’re headed down the same path. Illustration by Rose Wong Cultural Capital Make Sure You Have the Record Player on at Night Red Channels Paris Marx Nomads in Search of a Villain The new film Nomadland is a heartfelt look at the lives of itinerant Americans cast aside by the Great Recession. But it ignores how employers like Amazon are raking in profits off this new class of worker. Illustration by Cat Sims Bass & Superstructure Eileen Jones Bob Dylan’s American Apocalypse Dylan’s latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, is a fitting capstone for our end times. Ways of Seeing Ryan Zickgraf Cyberpunk Needs a Reboot Cyberpunk once stood out as a vital genre of anti-capitalist fiction. Today, it’s been reduced to a cool retro aesthetic easily appropriated by the world’s second-richest man to market ugly Blade Runner–inspired trucks to nostalgia-drenched Gen Xers. The Tumbrel Corn Pop’s Straight Razor Girondins Dustin Guastella Everyone Hates the Democrats Progressives and moderates accuse each other of being unable to appeal to working-class voters—and maybe they’re both right. Thermidor J. C. Pan Why the Alt-Right Will Lose Thankfully, almost nobody likes a Nazi, and even fewer still like a Nazi steeped in a creepy online subculture. The Worst Estate Branko Marcetic The Year Twitter Tried to Dictate an Election If you want to see the future, imagine a finger clicking “mute” on anything criticizing an establishment presidential candidate, forever. Illustration by Rose Wong Leftovers God Love Ya Cookshop Leigh Phillips Thank Socialism for the Vaccine. Blame Capitalism for Its Distribution. The jaw-dropping speed of COVID-19 vaccine development is a glorious marvel of science, cooperation, and economic planning. But the lifeboat ethics of vaccine rollout is a horrifying display of the cruelty of capitalism. Popular Front Alex N. Press Building From the Ruins The Left needs a revived labor movement, and a revived labor movement needs the Left. Popular Front Natalie Shure Medicare for All: No Victory in Sight As the Trump era draws to a close and yesteryear’s centrist, Joe Biden, takes office, can the Medicare for All movement build the momentum it needs to win? Proletoccult Your Quarterly Horoscope Looking forward to 2021? Read this horoscope first. Means and Ends Vivek Chibber Leo Panitch (1945–2020) We’ve suffered an irreparable loss with the passing of our friend and comrade Leo Panitch.