Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats' - it was second-wave, it was divisive - but 2008 made retro politics cool again. — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American political life is all about. — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad. — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Conservatism is not a doctrine of contentment. Not a doctrine for the satisfied and the smug. It's a politics that's at war… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Joe Klein is the flower of American political journalism, a sharp raconteur who shows traces of the gonzo style that was in… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
There are few things in politics more annoying than the Right's utter conviction that it owns the patent on the word 'freedom'… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Corruption is uniquely reprehensible in a democracy because it violates the system's first principle, which we all learned back in the sunshiny… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Financial regulation is the next item on the political horizon, and it doesn't have to be the deathly dull wonk-battle that it… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
We are watching industries crumble, Wall Street firms disappear, unemployment spike, and unprecedented government intervention. And our designated opinion leaders want to… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Our laws governing lobbying and campaign contributions have struck the right balance between the wishes of the people and those of private… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Under the administration of George W. Bush, you will recall, federal spending grew pretty significantly. At the same time, the number of… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Markets are interested in profits and profits only; service, quality, and general affluence are different functions altogether. The universal, democratic prosperity that… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
“There’s a reason you probably haven’t heard much about this aspect of the heartland. This kind of blight can’t be easily blamed… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
“You can find dozens of examples of this kind of liberal-class virtue-quest if you try, but instead of listing them, let me… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
“And libertarianism is good because it helps conservatives pass off a patently pro-business political agenda as a noble bid for human freedom.… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
“The trick never ages; the illusion never wears off. Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Government is, by its very nature, a destroyer of liberties; the Obama administration, specifically, is promising to interfere with the economy and… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
This aesthetic quality, then, is what politics is all about. It's authenticity that separates winners from losers, good politics from bad, and… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Above all else stands the burning question of bipartisanship. Whatever else the politicians might say they're about, our news analysts know that… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
Former President Bill Clinton, who is widely regarded as a political mastermind, may have sounded like a traditional liberal at the beginning… — Thomas Frank Copy Share Image
“above all, intellectual. Anti-intellectualism is one of the grand unifying themes of the backlash, the mutant strain of class war that underpins so many… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
The only truly individualistic health-care choice - where you receive care that is unpolluted by anyone else's funds - is to forgo insurance altogether,… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Conservatism is not a doctrine of contentment. Not a doctrine for the satisfied and the smug. It's a politics that's at war with the… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
A president aiming for 'Great' or 'Near Great' status must do more. He must give lots of interviews, make records accessible, and heap the… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
“Innovation liberalism is "a liberalism of the rich," to use the straightforward phrase of local labor leader Harris Gruman. This doctrine has no patience… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Presidential legacies are valuable things, too valuable to be left up to historians. — Thomas Frank Copy Share
A lot of populists after populism died just became socialists. At the beginning of the 20th century, socialism looked like it was going to… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
“And so the catastrophe of 1929–33 did to the certainties of laissez-faire economics what science did to nineteenth-century religion and what the slaughter of… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Vibrancy is so universally desirable, so totemic in its powers, that even though we aren't sure what the word means, we know the quality… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Under the administration of George W. Bush, you will recall, federal spending grew pretty significantly. At the same time, the number of people directly… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Massive inequality, we have learned, isn't the best way to run an economy after all. And when you think about it, it's also profoundly… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Governing was always difficult for conservatives, but as they return to the opposition, they are rediscovering their skill at blame evasion. — Thomas Frank Copy Share
Back in the days when the market was a kind of secular god and all the world thrilled to behold the amazing powers of… — Thomas Frank Copy Share
