About this title: Liberal journalist Thomas Frank turns his witty and insightful pen on this nation's gradual drift to the right over the last 30 years of the 20th century, asking "Why?" The conservative movement, once the bastion of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and protected interests now appears to be the people's party, the party of populism, and Frank wants to know how this could have happened. His answer is that conservatives have beaten the drum on issues like abortion, the flag, and religion--"values" that resonate deeply in the heartland. In addition, they have marketed their message, along with a ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2004-06-01
ISBN-13:9780805073393ISBN:0805073396
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ jacket. VG+/VG+, no tears or chips to the DJ, interior clean and bright, binding tight, a wonderful copy throughout. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780805073393ISBN:0805073396
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780805073393ISBN:0805073396
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780805077742ISBN:080507774X
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
"Quite a bit more strident and less scholarly than I expected, but still good, especially for a Kansas boy. Basically, capital and labor have merged on the topic of moral issues, which has resulted not in Roe vs Wade being overturned or really any change in the moral direction of the country at all, but rather in capital getting straight paid. The author describes how the working poor and lower middle class have traded the New Deal that their predecessors carved out of the backs of capital for symbolic fights that feed into a glorification of victimhood. A bit disjointed, but still pretty good stuff and an easy look at how much it's a damn shame that "the people in the small towns look around at what Wal-Mart and ConAgra have wrought and decide to enlist in the crusade against Charles Darwin." Funny too in a bitter sort of way that it's the government that no one trusts that has to step in to save lovely middle-class Johnson County from total abandonment by Sprint, and that will hopefully save lovely blue-collar Wichita from total abandonment by Boeing."
"Why did I wait so long to read this book? What a tour de force it is. The thumbnail sketch of it that you have heard (or at least I had heard) really fails to capture its depth and complexity. It is deeply grounded in American and Kansan history, for one thing. It is also astoundingly well-written, amusing, and witty. But most importantly, even for people who follow American politics closely, it teaches you some important things that have been happening behind the scenes in American politics for decades. The single best insight in the book is when Frank shows how deeply interwoven the culture war is with the conservative rise, because the Democrats, thanks to Clinton and the DLC, abandoned economic populism. So, the working class white voters of Kansas and other states would be driven into a rage by some cultural event, some scandal like Madonna and Britney kissing on TV, (driven by O'Reilly and other douchebags), and rally and vote for Republicans, who proceeded to cut the taxes on people like Madonna and Britney and the "liberal" Hollywood moguls who encourage rock stars and celebrities to offend the middle class morality, because it is profitable. The culture war is essential because it is unwinnable. The unwinnable issues never stop paying off (until financial collapse finally refocused us all), and once elected, the Republicans give their all to the corporate elites and ignore the cultural issues that got them elected (except to spew hot air). Genius! Much else to the book, but that insight alone is worth reading for."
"This book explains why some people constantly vote against their own well being. I think it shows that we as Americans are never satisfied with what we have and are always wanting more,... nicer house, nicer car, newer clothes, anything that makes us feel better and more important than the people down the street. Frank goes into detail about how the "true" republican conservatives from Kansas were shocked and caught by surprise by the quick rise of the "Moral Majority" and other quack groups. He shows how "Conservativism" has become about anti-gay, and anti-abortion issues rather than conservative financial policy. Meanwhile we look at our delapidated small towns and older sub-burbs and wonder where it all went wrong."
"Decent book... interesting and well written. I think the problem is that it's just a bit too opinionated and sometimes the writing is a tinge sensational. However, for the most part provides interesting insight on "How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," and that poor and middle class people will vote contrary to their economic interests in favor of righteous ideals that for the most part will not be achieved politically and are suppressed by an imagined liberal political hegemony."
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