Recommended: Strangers In Their Own Land

Arlie Russell Hochschild is a leading sociologist, author of a number of books about class and social structure, and her latest book is Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.  A liberal academic who teaches at Berkeley, she set out to cross what she calls the "empathy wall" and try to understand how the world looks to the political right, to the conservative people who support groups like the Tea Party. And she did it by going to Louisiana and meeting and befriending and listening to (as opposed to lecturing) working people there, and really trying to understand how they got their their views, and how the world looks to them. And in fact she succeeds, and the view she uncovers - she calls it the "deep story", the emotionally powerful world view that shapes everyone's thinking - makes it clear why the right doesn't trust government and is in revolt.  And frankly, seen from their point of view, I don't blame them.

This is a terribly important book that a lot more liberals ought to be reading if they would like to better understand why Democrats have been losing elections at the local, state and federal level for the past decade - and may continue to lose - and why Trump could win the presidency.