Politics is realigning around class and education, not left and right
September 29, 2026 · 26 min read
Saagar Enjeti explains Trump's win through an education divide, Bernie Sanders and Andrew Schulz frame politics as a class issue, and Bridget Phetasy and Chris Williamson describe people leaving old party loyalties. It explains coalitions that look strange under the old map.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- Shared claim: the left-right map no longer predicts who votes for whom.
- Saagar Enjeti: the key divide in 2024 was the four-year college degree, a marker of culture more than income.
- Enjeti: the Trump movement is a rejection of cultural elitism, which lets unlike figures share one umbrella.
- Enjeti's plainer causes: a global anti-incumbent wave, an unpopular president, and inflation.
- Enjeti: public opinion is thermostatic, swinging against whoever holds power.
- Bernie Sanders: a $50 trillion transfer from the bottom 90% to the top 1% fuels justified anger.
- Sanders's test: is anger aimed at those with power or at people worse off?
- Sanders: costly campaigns tie candidates to wealthy donors; watch who funds whom.
- Andrew Schulz: Democrats erred by not making it a class issue, and by talking down to voters.
- Bridget Phetasy: check claims even when they favor your side; assume viral stories may be false.
- Chris Williamson: people drift left to right more than the reverse; by 2030 two women per man may finish college.
- Main disagreement: culture, per Enjeti, versus money, per Sanders and Schulz.
- Caution: the sources are mostly people who feel the shift; no one defends the Democratic establishment.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.