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The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule
by Thomas Frank
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Synopses & Reviews From the author of the landmark bestseller Whats the Matter with Kansas?, a jaw-dropping investigation of the decades of deliberateand lucrativeconservative misrule In his previous book, Thomas Frank explained why working America votes for politicians who reserve their favors for the rich. Now, in The Wrecking Crew, Frank examines the blundering and corrupt Washington those politicians have given us. Casting back to the early days of the conservative revolution, Frank describes the rise of a ruling coalition dedicated to dismantling government. But rather than cutting down the big government they claim to hate, conservatives have simply sold it off, deregulating some industries, defunding others, but always turning public policy into a private-sector bidding war. Washington itself has been remade into a golden landscape of super-wealthy suburbs and gleaming lobbyist headquartersthe wages of government-by-entrepreneurship practiced so outrageously by figures such as Jack Abramoff. It is no coincidence, Frank argues, that the same politicians who guffaw at the idea of effective government have installed a regime in which incompetence is the rule. Nor will the country easily shake off the consequences of deliberate misgovernment through the usual election remedies. Obsessed with achieving a lasting victory, conservatives have taken pains to enshrine the free market as the permanent creed of state. Stamped with Thomas Franks audacity, analytic brilliance, and wit, The Wrecking Crew is his most revelatory work yetand his most important. Review: "Republican misrule and mistaken policy is the intended fulfillment of conservative antigovernment ideology, argues this scintillating j'accuse. Frank ( What's the Matter With Kansas?) surveys what he regards as the hallmarks of conservative control of Washington: a government hobbled by budget deficits, disgraced by scandals, downsized, outsourced, hollowed out and sold off to corporate interests and thus made incapable of meeting its basic responsibilities. The result of this 'political vandalism,' he contends, is a perverse propaganda triumph for conservatives, who point with gleeful cynicism to the shambles they make of government as proof that government can't do anything right. Frank presents a scathing recap of Republican mismanagement and corruption, from the Hurricane Katrina debacle to the depredations of Jack Abramoff, and combines it with a shrewd dissection of the theories of conservative ideologues who call for and celebrate the sabotaging of the state. Writing with a barbed wit and finely controlled anger, he skewers such juicy targets as libertarian strategist Grover Norquist and Michelle Malkin, 'a pundit with the appearance of a Bratz doll but the soul of Chucky.' One of the sharpest political commentators around, Frank is required reading for every concerned citizen." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review: Last I checked, conventional wisdom held that conservatives see the world in black and white while the more nuanced vision of liberals allows for shades of gray. Thomas Frank must have missed that memo. In his world, there are conservatives ... and there is everyone else. Conservatives, according to Frank, aren't simply wrong about how to make the world a better place. They actually want to make it ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) worse. And while there may be "plenty of good conservative individuals" — thanks, Tom — "put conservatism in charge of the state, and it behaves very differently." Hence Jack Abramoff, the imprisoned lobbyist, who for Frank represents conservatism in power. As a student activist, Abramoff agitated against big government. But as a high-powered lobbyist, Abramoff used his big-government connections to steal money from Indian tribes operating casinos. He and his cronies, most of whom are now out of office or in jail or both, mouthed conservative rhetoric while doing their self-dealing. They clothed their bad behavior in ideological garb. They used the government power they criticized as outsiders to enrich themselves once they became insiders. A lot of folks, including me, see Abramoff's crimes as a betrayal of American conservatism and a sign of the conservative movement's relative decline. Not Frank. He argues that Abramoff actually represents conservatism in full flower, that Abramoff's criminality is the ultimate expression of conservative ideas. Frank's problem isn't with some rotten apples. His problem is with the tree. He wants to uproot it. It's a tall order, delegitimizing an entire political philosophy. So Frank's narrative zigs and zags: from Abramoff to Warren G. Harding to the obscure 1930s writer Albert Jay Nock to Tom DeLay. In its frenetic hurly-burly, "The Wrecking Crew" resembles nothing so much as a Hieronymus Bosch canvas. Dozens of monsters (the conservatives) scurry about wreaking havoc as a pack of screaming innocents (everybody else) flees in terror. And no one is really sure what exactly is going on. Like a Bosch painting, Frank's Washington is an orgy of self-indulgence rendered in vibrant colors. And it's all incredibly entertaining. Bosch was a stern moralist who sought to portray human sinfulness and weakness in order to encourage good behavior. But his wild devils and imps aren't quite so fun to contemplate once one recognizes his dark view of humanity. So it is with Frank. After a while, his dim view of those who disagree with him — not just Abramoff and all the other Republican crooks and crazies, but any conservative who has held office or lobbied or criticized the excesses of government or championed the market — gets old. It starts to grate. There are, after all, at least two sides to every issue. Things aren't as cut-and-dried as ideologues on both the right and left would have it. So by the time Frank defines conservatism as a "philosophy which regards good government as a laughable impossibility, which elevates bullies and gangsters and CEOs above other humans," one starts to hope that he's joking. Because if he isn't, there's little difference between Frank and Ann Coulter — except Frank has more footnotes. What's missing from "The Wrecking Crew" is a sense of history, which is odd, considering that Frank has a PhD in the subject from the University of Chicago. One keeps waiting for him to explain why, if conservatives are so evil, the American electorate suddenly started voting them into office 40 years ago. Granted, he covered some of that in his last book. But his analysis is marred by his refusal to acknowledge the failures of the Great Society; the social, cultural and political upheaval of the 1960s and '70s; the legacy of the antiwar movement and Vietnam; and the real achievements — I am not making this up — of conservative governments from Reagan to Bush. But this book isn't history. It's a cartoon. "In other lands and in other times," Frank writes, "conservatism has meant traditionalism, an attitude of respect for institutions inherited from times past. In America, however, conservatism has always been an expression of business." Really? Always? How is the pro-life movement an "expression of business"? The gun-rights movement? The activists who rail against government appropriation of private property for commercial uses? The China hawks who argue that America sullies its human rights reputation by trading with a dictatorship? No one is served by such ridiculous assertions. Political caricature may mean your book will be a likely best-seller. But compelling analysis requires an author to accept that both parties act in good faith ... even when they do wrong. Reviewed by Matthew Continetti, who is associate editor at the Weekly Standard and the author of 'The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine', Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Synopsis: From the author of the landmark bestseller "What's the Matter with Kansas?" comes a jaw-dropping investigation of the decades of deliberate--and lucrative--conservative misrule.
Video About the Author Thomas Frank is the author of Whats the Matter with Kansas? and One Market Under God. The founding editor of The Baffler and a contributing editor at Harpers, Frank has received a Lannan award and been a guest columnist for The New York Times. He lives, of course, in Washington, D.C.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780805079883
- Subtitle:
- How Conservatives Rule
- Author:
- Frank, Thomas
- Publisher:
- Metropolitan Books
- Subject:
- Political Parties
- Subject:
- Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism
- Subject:
- Political Process - Political Parties
- Subject:
- Politics, practical
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- Government - U.S. Government
- Subject:
- United States Politics and government.
- Subject:
- Republican party (u.s.: 1854-)
- Edition Description:
- Trade Cloth
- Publication Date:
- August 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 369
- Dimensions:
- 8.25 x 5.50 in
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