"LISTEN LIBERAL! OR WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE PARTY OF THE PEOPLE?" By Thomas Frank

Kansas City native son and political writer Thomas Frank's book talk on his newest work, "Listen, Liberal! Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People" at the Kansas City, MO Public Library, March 24, 2016. VIDEO, 38 mins., and well worth it. Excellent discussion, Rating A.

Author and Kansas City native son Thomas Frank returned to his hometown to talk about what's wrong with the Democratic Party in support of his new book "Listen, Liberal!." Following on the tradition of his popular book "What's the Matter with Kansas" which carefully chronicled how the Republican Party of Lincoln has been seduced and deliberately taken over by extremist ideologues of the far right, Frank now makes the case that the DEMOCRATIC PARTY has also been taken over by a type of CONSERVATIVE ideology that, while not promoting ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, certainly rationalizes it.

While Republican "establishment" figures revere the accumulation of wealth as a sign of 'winning' which somehow makes them automatically somehow qualified --or entitled-- to govern, The DEMOCRATIC "ESTABLISHMENT" believes that the world is a 'meritocracy' where the elites of the 'professional class' are best suited to govern based on their superior educational attainment and connections.
Frank asserts that the two political parties dominated by societal ELITES have systemically failed the WORKERS in America, resulting in a space for POPULISM to naturally grow into.

The Democratic Party under the leadership of President BILL CLINTON turned its back on its working class and middle class roots while attempting to expand and capture the professional class. Claiming that 'THEY HAVE NO PLACE ELSE TO GO', the Democrats have also been responsible for policies that increased INCOME INEQUALITY and increased the economic insecurity of white working class people. Some of these people have found a new place to go. They have now left the building. Many of them can now be seen following a pied piper named TRUMP.

The broken two party political system that has largely seen the hereditary moneyed elites-- who thought they could control the working class with a mix of social conservatism, phony fiscal fears and tax voodoo, and foreign fear mongering-- fight with the intellectual professional class elites who thought they could control the working class because 'they have no place else to go', is giving way to an authoritarian populism embodied by a narcissistic reality TV caricature of success likely to be the next Republican Presidential nominee.