Hey Democrats, Read This Book
Remember the point last year when Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson was all the rage. Agree or disagree with its premise, it was must reading for Democratic operatives and progressive pundits..
Well, here’s the book that deserves that kind of attention in 2026: THE WORLD’S WORST BET by David J. Lynch. As the subtitle makes clear, the book explains How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and what would make it right).
If you’re a Democratic candidate, strategist or campaign operative, run don’t walk to your independent bookstore and grab a copy.
Two Big Bets: Neither One Paid Off
Lynch skillfully walks through the rise and fall of globalization from the over-hyped promises of the 1990s Clinton era to the crucial role failure to fulfill those promises played in paving the way for the Trump era.
His premise is straightforward. The globalization gamble involved two big bets. Describing the 1990s climate, Lynch notes “In those exhilarating days, globalization promised a double-barreled win: prosperity at home and peace abroad.”
Sure, the rapid expansion of a global economy would be disruptive – especially for the least-skilled and least-educated workers in the United States. But “globalization’s ‘losers’ would be compensated with the retraining and financial support needed to ease their transition to the new world.”
Meanwhile, the economic engine of globalization would inevitably lead to the liberalization of authoritarian regimes in China, Russia and beyond. As Lynch wryly comments “It was an attractive theory, and for a while it looked like it might even be true.”
Lynch is quick to acknowledge the upside of globalization. Citing International Monetary Fund data, he notes that “Knitting together low-wage workers in the developing world with consumers in the United States and Europe helped lift nearly 1.5 billion people out of crushing poverty.”
But, the globalization gamble went wrong on two critical fronts. The widely predicted weakening of authoritarian regimes never came to pass. The global world order being shaped by Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping bears little resemblance to the liberal democratic dreams of the Clinton era.
And here in the U.S., the promised support for working class families who saw globalization take away their manufacturing jobs and hollow out their communities never came. And the widened the gap between “haves” and “have nots” helped shape American life both economically and politically.
Bad Bets That Keep Reverberating
Lynch relates a fascinating narrative seen from many different perspectives – presidents, policymakers, factory workers, investors. Taken only as an economic and political chronicle of the last 40 years, THE WORLD’S WORST BET would be a worthwhile read.
But it is so much more than that. Why? Because Lynch makes clear that the globalization bets made and lost continue to reverberate through our economy and our politics. His year by year narrative makes clear how many opportunities America’s elites had to address the downside of globalization for working class communities – and how they took a pass at each and every turn.
And with his journalistic skills, Lynch allows the reader to experience the resulting
working class frustration and anger in a visceral way. Here he is on the dam breaking on those feelings in the 2016 presidential election.
“For years, Washington had catered to everyone else, from Wall Street banks to newly arrived immigrants, rather than help these average Americans. Now their patience was exhausted. With Trump, they were ready to burn it all down.”
It’s imperative that Democratic candidates understand the callousness of the elites and take to heart the anger of the working class. It’s the only path to a new era of a Democratic party both capable and worthy of leading America in a new direction.