Listen, Liberal

March 14, 2016
In an astute dissection of contemporary Democratic politics, Frank (Pity the Billionaire) asserts that stagnant wages and the decline of the American middle class were neither unavoidable nor wholly the work of a plutocratic Republican party. He skewers Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and lesser liberal lights such as former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick with the savage clarity of a man who never bought what they were selling. He tracks three grim decades of the party's abrogation of the working class that once filled its rank-and-file membership, replaced by harmful fealty and obsequious reverence toward the "Liberal Class," well-educated, impeccably credentialed white-collar professionals. By the first Clinton administration, non-college-educated laboring voters were left open to widening inequality, a shocking erosion of workers' rights, and a growing concentration of power and capital facilitated by trade pacts like NAFTA. Worse, Democratic establishment figures such as the Clintons have embraced this dynamic, failing to confront abusive financial practices and engaging in fatuous reverence for "innovation" and startup companies. Frank demonstrates, cogently and at times acidly, how the party lost the allegiance of blue-collar Americans.

March 1, 2016
How the party of the working class has switched its focus to well-heeled professionals, more concerned with social issues than economic inequality. "This is a book about the failure of the Democratic Party," writes political analyst and Baffler founding editor Frank (Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right, 2011). "What ails the Democrats?" he asks. "So bravely forthright on cultural issues, their leaders fold when confronted with matters of basic economic democracy." Where David Halberstam once showed how reliance on "the best and the brightest" resulted in wrongheaded decisions on Vietnam, Frank builds a similar case for economic policy, as Ivy League presidents (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama) have surrounded themselves with Ivy League advisers whose perspectives aren't those of what was once the blue-collar base of the Democratic Party: "Thus did the Party of the People turn the government over to Wall Street in the years after Wall Street had done such lasting damage to...well, the People." Frank is particularly acidic on the Clinton presidency, calling his cabinet "a kind of yuppie Woodstock, a gathering of the highly credentialed tribes," and claiming, "what he did as president was far outside the reach of even the most diabolical Republican." In the author's estimation, the hope of the Obama administration turned hopeless. Since Frank is far from a lone voice in the wilderness in his perspective, you'd think he might see allies in the Occupy movement and the Bernie Sanders campaign, but he barely acknowledges the former and makes no mention of the latter, making it seem as if more recent developments lie outside his analysis. Rather than insisting on radical reform from the left or even a third party alternative, he seems to feel that Hillary Clinton is inevitable: "I myself might vote for her," because it would be a "terrible thing" if any of the Republicans became president. A hard-hitting analysis that may leave readers confused by the author's ambivalent, punches-pulling conclusion.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2016
Frank, best known for his scathing commentary about Republicans in books like What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004) and The Wrecking Crew (2008), turns his sights on the Democrats, the supposed party of the people. As Frank sees it, individual Democrats have done little to advance liberal economic causes. The party itself, he argues, is firmly entrenched in the establishment and, despite the rhetoric, has expended little effort on the vanishing middle class. He begins with Barack Obama's quick turn from preaching hope and change to bailing out Wall Street, and he continues by bashing Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (who took a job at Bain Capital when his term was over); Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who touts innovation but befriends bankers; and Hillary Clinton, whom he chides for phony populist rhetoric, among many other faults (though he says he'd vote for her). There's no doubt that Frank puts forth an impressive catalog of Democratic disappointments, more than enough to make liberals uncomfortable. But solutions aren't really offered, the Bernie Sanders effect isn't examined, and good intentions and motivations are discounted. Still, he offers a tough and thought-provoking look at what's wrong with America.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015

The author of What's the Matter with Kansas? thinks that there's something the matter with Democrats, arguing that they are ignoring the traditional liberal commitments to greater opportunity, greater social justice, and fairness for workers in favor of free-market pandering and more elitist concerns. Now it's time to go in reverse. Great conversation fodder.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.