Thomas Frank, author of 'What's the Matter with Kansas?', turns his critical attention to the Democratic Party. He argues that over the past several decades, Democrats abandoned their traditional constituency—working-class Americans of all races—in favor of professionals and the highly educated. Party leaders, Frank contends, came to see education as the solution to economic problems, offering credentials rather than challenging the structures that concentrated wealth. The book traces this shift through the Clinton and Obama administrations, examining how policies from NAFTA to bank bailouts served elite interests while Democrats assured themselves they were still the party of the people. Frank is particularly sharp on the cultural attitudes that alienated working-class voters: the assumption that education automatically confers moral superiority, the dismissal of opponents as irrational or bigoted, the celebration of meritocracy by those who already won the merit competition. The book is polemical and deliberately provocative, but Frank's core argument—that Democrats traded their economic populism for professional class interests—speaks to debates still roiling the party.