Citizen Reader

God, am I sick of political books.

I am also sick of politics, but that's a whole other story. (Nothing encourages turning off the TV like national political conventions, particularly when you don't have cable.) So why do I keep picking these political books up? Well, because there's so many of them right now. And I don't have all that many areas of expertise other than nonfiction books, so I try to keep that knowledge up when I can. And, because, I rather enjoy Thomas Frank. So I had to at least look at The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.

It's pretty standard stuff, with Frank looking at the rise of the conservative faction of the Republican Party over the last fifty years or so, paying special attention to their genius at a) indulging in huge amounts of government spending while b) pretending to their voters that government is the problem and they want to make it smaller. As always, Frank is a skilled writer, and not reliably partisan; he has just as many harsh words for corrupt Democrats as Republicans. Particularly interesting is his opening chapter on how Washington D.C. itself has changed, from a town of low-level bureaucrats who were pleased with their nearby not-overlarge brick homes (which didn't even have garages), to a town of corporate high-rises, surrounded at length by gated wealthy suburbs with huge McMansions. Interesting point, that.

What's frustrating is that progressives or populists or liberals or whatever you want to call them are the only ones who will read books like this, and then, what's the point? I myself can't read the whole thing because, although I am not all that smart, I can get the point of what he's saying in the first 50 pages, and I agree. Although I couldn't help looking at the last chapter, and I was not disappointed. It's lengthy, but stick with me, there's a payoff at the end:

"At least we know where to begin: understanding conservatism's cynicism for what it is, and for what it has done to our world...We can now say of that philosophy which regards good government as a laughable impossibility, which elevates bullies and gangsters and CEOs above other humans, which tells us to get wise and stop expecting anything good from Washington--we can now say with finality that it has had its chance. Whenever there was a choice to be made between markets and free people--between money and the common good--the conservatives chose money. It's time to make them answer for it."

I think that sums it up pretty succinctly. However, if you're looking for a great Thomas Frank to read, skip this one and his popular What's the Matter with Kansas, and head right for One Market Under God. There's much more there about the economic and political ramifications of our growing income gap, with less in the way of partisan argument. It's an unbelievable book.