On Thursday, January 26, 2017, author David S. Mitchell appeared alongside former Democratic US Senate candidate and lawyer, Ken Lewis, and Duke University professor and critically acclaimed author, Timothy B. Tyson (author of The Blood of Emmett Till and Blood Done Sign My Name). During this rich discussion on David’s new novel, We Hold These Truths—and the critical real-world themes it evokes—the three panelists covered a variety of topics, from the 2010 Election Cycle and the 2016 contest between Clinton and Trump, to the Democratic Party’s “progressive problem” and its deployment of what David calls the “Two-Step” (a race-based political maneuver, not a dance).

In this clip, David articulates how the Democratic Party establishment—both in the fictional world inhabited by WHTT‘s characters and in the United States of America—uses the Two-Step to deprive progressive voters of their power to drive electoral outcomes. David also explains why there’s still hope for Democrats in spite of—or perhaps more accurately, because of—Trump’s November 2016 victory.