Saul Hardman itibaren Central Greenwich, NB , Canada

saulhardman

11/21/2024

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2019-10-22 18:41

Bina (Kur’an-ı Kerimdeki Bütün Kelime Çözümleriyle) - Zehra Seven TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi

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Thomas Frank advances the argument that schismatic activity within both major American parties has resulted in the shifting of traditional blue collar/middle class votes from Democrat to Republican. He contends that a new breed of conservative, religious-professing politicians use cultural issues to obfuscate class concerns. This negation of class in political debate then results in lower and middle class voters keeping those people in power who exploit them (the voters) financially while paying lip service to their (the voters’) conservative concerns. This is a fantastic book on several levels: 1) Frank is a great writer who combines a knack for alliterative turns of phrase with an acerbic wit for a very satisfying effect. The unfortunately clunky syntax found in many political analyses is decidedly not in evidence. 2) His thesis: the Republican Party is essentially made up of two factions, one moderate and one conservative. The moderates are the educated, professional, upper middle class—people with a pro-business mindset but liberal-esque outlook on social matters (e.g. they believe in evolution, pro-choice, etc.). The conservatives are made up of rank and file middle/lower middle class folks who believe the country is in the midst of a headlong flight to moral annihilation; these people, many of them former Democratic-voting blue collar tradespeople, vote for politicians who side with them on polemic but largely unsolvable social issues. The conservatives also include the charlatan politicians who are only too happy to pander to the social issues that rile their constituency but enact economic policies that screw their rank and file while enriching the corporate community. All of the rank and file’s woes are blamed on the liberal elite (Hollywood, New York intellectuals, academia, etc.). The moderate Republicans, while embarrassed by some of the conservatives’ more ridiculous antics (e.g. Intelligent Design, Terri Schiavo, etc.), nevertheless find their swollen bank accounts an adequate salve. While diametrically opposed to their agenda, Frank evinces a grudging admiration for the true blue, rank and file conservatives, whose mobilizing tactics are a pure expression of grass roots democracy. Frank holds the charlatans in utter disdain while his judgment of the moderates is a mixed bag: he dislikes their corporate mentality, the adherence to free market solutions to every problem, but thinks of them as more ingenuous than the elite hypocrites that head up the conservatives. The most fascinating thing about this analysis is his explanation of why class doesn’t figure into American political discourse (i.e. red scare hangover plus blustering popinjays plus histrionic morality equals accusations of liberal über-lordship and evisceration of anyone with the temerity to broach the subject). This is a critique of capitalism: Frank is genuinely dismayed by the exploitative cycles systems such as ours perpetuate. While his analysis is redolent with its principles (though he pulls from a mixed critical bag), he refrains from using the M word (Marxism), and who can blame him, what with the vindictive political climate we find ourselves in?

Okuyucu Saul Hardman itibaren Central Greenwich, NB , Canada

Kullanıcı, bu kitapları portalın yayın kurulu olan 2017-2018'de en ilginç olarak değerlendirdi "TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi" Tüm okuyucuların bu literatürü tanımalarını tavsiye eder.