uTopianTurtleTop

Frank isn't hip. He's a profound snob. He wrote a horrific article in Harper's a few years back about how stupid & insipid pop music is, and how anybody clever should be able to crack it, and, in fact, a terribly bright and clever pal of his tried very hard to do just that, and his friend didn't make it, which just goes to prove, according to Frank, how insipid pop music is, since the fans don't even recognize how clever and talented and bright his friend is.

I haven't read his Kansas book, because the problem isn't, What's the Matter with Democrats, it's, What's the Matter with Snobs.

A bright and talented and unjustly unrecognized friend of mine HAS read Frank's Kansas book, and he also thinks I'm being unfair to Frank, that the book is much more subtle than the media caricature of it. But a media critic like Frank should know how media caricatures work. The central narrative of the 2000 campaign was how moderate and reasonable and down-to-earth and likeable Bush is. Lies, lies, lies; and the way Frank's book has been caricatured has fed that lie. Given Frank's snobbery in other venues, I don't doubt that he does indeed have a mistakenly snobbish attitude to his fellow Kansans.

As for Ergo We're Doomed -- remember: liberals are the majority. That's why conservatives have to lie all the time. Very good point about class-aspiration-identity and how it works; I also agree that poor populist instincts have hurt the democrats in national elections; but my feeling is that the populism has to come in the form of persona more importantly than economic policy. Bad-ass-itude wins national elections. (That, and cheating like crazy, if you're a Republican.)