That says it all.

Thanks for the link!

I'd never even heard of this guy whose book he says is foundational to modern "conservatives"- and by conservatives I mean nutcases.

I think his full name should be in the OP, but I'm big into that sort of thing.....

first sentence in the OP:

It's by Thomas Frank who wrote "What's The Matter With Kansas". It's actually an excerpt from his 2008 book, "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation".

His name here is included in text that looks the same as the text Mr Frank wrote. Authorship should be apparent at a glance. The author's text and the introduction by another should also be well deleniated. Just my opinion. Not a big deal real really.

when it's pointed out to you that his full name is right in front of your nose- which points out that YOU didn't read the op- you whine that it should stand out.

The authorship was apparent at a glance to anyone who read the FIRST FOUR WORDS OF THE FIRST SENTENCE. Jesus.

Destroying the Gov. is treason, no?

"reading" images.

His opening notes in Harper's are reason enough to keep subscribing. Way ahead of the curve.

I learn so much from Frank.

Albert Jay Nock?

Never even heard of him before I read this.

This country is in bad, bad shape. I have some ideas about what might be done, but they are not publishable at du and would require a few thousand people who are willing to go well outside their comfort zones.

Thanks for the thread, cali.

good morning.

perhaps we should allow theses idiots to secede from America. The red states that these idiots reside in are the biggest takers of government money. They attempt to destroy America at every chance. They definitely keep America from being a Progressive,
benevolent country where people come first.
"They" have a nightmare vision of a country where the wealthy get everything, and it has corrupted the America that most of
us strive for.
It wouldn't take long for their "country" to collapse, without taking all of us down with them.
We need a solution quickly.
A progressive country will never occur with corporatist ideology holding un-democratic influence and control of "our govt."

Perhaps we or they should be allowed to secede and pursue the govt. we desire.

It is not ideal but may be necessary for our survival.

I agree with you, but since all of the red states aren't together in a block, how do we keep them out of the blue states? And how to make the ones living in blue states from wrecking havoc? Because you know that they know, deep down, they have it better blue than red...

this is just silly stuff.

You're basically saying fuck you to everyone else who lives in those places. I see you so graciously offered to let us into your Royal Blue Utopias... are you going to pay to move multiple generations of my family who have made their homes here, lived their whole lives here in this "hell hole"? I am so tired of all this effing regional righteousness that goes on around here. I am sure Texas is at the top of your list to be punished even though it is actually quite purple, not red (save for Colin and Tarrant Counties, and even those aren't cherry red any more).

I have no idea how the logistics could be accomplished.
I do believe that unless money ceases to be the God that the "top" (how insane that wealth is the measuring stick) PTB are allowed to ruin America, there will be a civil war.

Allowing one to secede would end up damaging all the other states. Remember those progressives living in Texas who don't have a majority yet would be forced into a secession they don't want. We are in this together and greedy selfish divisive insanity should be rooted out not given into. We have solutions...they are just being blocked by a greedy few.

...and then use that as a rationale for bludgeoning people (government). Conservatives and their friends, apparently.

"If you have a big cake, and you put it under the sink and then you wonder why the cockroaches are in your kitchen, I don’t think any sprays or blocking the holes in the walls are going to get rid of the cockroaches. You’ve got to throw the cake in the trash so that the cockroaches don’t have something to come for."

I learned a lot reading it.

and sabotage

Great article, but I do disagree with him on one point. He says that the Conservative utopian dream to wreck the country is an impossible goal. I think it's not only possible, but probable at this point.

that are destroying the people's economy, the environment, our government, everything that makes our country our country.

very depressing.

K&R

insightful writers. Thanks for posting.

"In this sense, conservative Washington is a botch that will keep on working even after its formal demise. It defunded the constituencies of the liberal state while constructing a plutocracy that will stand regardless of who wins the next few elections and that will weight our politics rightward for years."

Yet people pretend it's only happening in Washington. Across the country, Republicans are digging in to help their Washington counterparts sabotage government.

Look at Wisconsin. Texas would benefit greatly if Wendy Davis won.

Nothing really new here if you have been paying attention. At least they used have the decency to hide it ... But there really is no need to hide it as so many with power or voice pretend that is not their agenda.

reading this brought to mind two other writings on this subject.

a recent one about cooperative/competitive genotypes
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/09/dilemma-cooperative-gene.html
"
In the simplest terms, at some level the efforts of human society are being directed by the interaction of two genetic predispositions.
The first predisposition views society as a loose-knit group of individuals or family units who are competing with each other for scarce resources.
The second predisposition views society as a tight-knit group of individuals or family units who are cooperating to share scarce resources.
"

and this one from 2006, Bob Altemeyer on Authoritarians endorsed by John Dean of all people.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

"
This book was written in 2006, halfway through George W. Bush’s second term as president. A great deal was wrong with America then, and I thought the research on authoritarian personalities could explain a lot of it. Since then a new administration has been elected, and although it has had to deal with a very serious economic crisis brought on by others, it is taking steps to correct some of what is wrong.

However, the forces that largely caused the problems have remained on the scene, and are more active today than ever before. As I try to show in the “Comment on the Tea Party Movement” (link to the left), the research findings in this book apply at least as strongly to America today as they did four years ago. Indeed, the events of 2009 and 2010 have confirmed conclusion after conclusion in The Authoritarians. I wrote in 2006 that the authoritarians in America were not going to go away if they lost the 2008 election, that they would be infuriated if a new president tried to carry out his mandate. That has certainly been the case.
"

(John Dean on Robert Altemeyer)
http://verdict.justia.com/2012/04/06/good-luck-wisconsin-youve-got-a-classic-authoritarian-governor

If the conservative/competitive/authoritarian exists as represented here we have a long haul ahead of us.

thanks for the article, cali

Thank You

He's insightful, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. Probably a lot of other adjectives, but those are the first ones to come to mind.

I'm not sure a lot of people get it that he is actually from Kansas. They see the title "What's the Matter With Kansas" and cheerfully agree there is something very wrong there, but don't read that excellent book. He actually grew up in Kansas, and a friend of mine was one of his 7th grade teachers. I met him not long after the '04 election, when he was back home and connected to a bunch of us Democrats there.

He grew up in an affluent suburb in Kansas. Overland Park, I think, but it might have been Leawood or another one of those. They're suburbs of Kansas City, which is in Missouri which is a different state altogether. His upbringing was very Republican, and he told us that he grew up thinking his father, some sort of well-paid white collar worker, really did work very hard. It was much later that he understood the difference between that kind of hard work and the hard work of the blue collar class.

If you're not familiar with The Baffler, (http://thebaffler.com/), check it out.

highly

Wow! I couldn't put it together like that, but I couldn't agree more.

Capitalism. Maybe It's no at all about politics but about a broken maniacal economic system.

-Laelth