From the bestselling author of What's the Matter With Kansas, a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics -- an audiobook that asks: what's the matter with Democrats? It is a widespread belief among liberals that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if only those awful Republicans are beaten into submission, the country will be on the right course. But this is to fundamentally misunderstand the modern Democratic Party. Drawing on years of research and first-hand reporting, Frank points out that the Democrats have done little to advance traditional liberal goals: expanding opportunity, fighting for social justice, and ensuring that workers get a fair deal. Indeed, they have scarcely dented the free-market consensus at all. This is not for lack of opportunity: Democrats have occupied the White House for sixteen of the last twenty-four years, and yet the decline of the middle class has only accelerated. Wall Street gets its bailouts, wages keep falling, and the free-trade deals keep coming. With his trademark sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank's Listen, Liberal lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party's philosophy and how it has changed over the years. A form of corporate and cultural elitism has largely eclipsed the party's old working-class commitment, he finds. For certain favored groups, this has meant prosperity. But for the nation as a whole, it is a one-way ticket into the abyss of inequality. In this critical election year, Frank recalls the Democrats to their historic goals-the only way to reverse the ever-deepening rift between the rich and the poor in America.
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“Frank argues, the Democrats have embraced a new favorite constituency: the professional class…whose fetish for academic credentials and technological innovation has infected the party of the working class.”
— Washington Post
“Thoroughly entertaining…Frank delights in skewering the sacred cows of coastal liberalism…A serious political critique.”
— New York Times Book Review (front page)“Frank says Democrats need to take a good long look in the mirror if they want answers to why blue-collar workers are feeling abandoned and even infuriated by what used to be their party.”
— New York Post“Documents a half-century of work by the Democratic elite to belittle working people and exile their concerns to the fringes of the party’s platform.”
— Huffington Post“A piece of contemporary history that tells us not only what the powerful are up to but how the trick is being pulled, with an admirable deployment of irony.”
— Prospect (UK)“An astute dissection…that demonstrates, cogently and at times acidly, how the party lost the allegiance of blue-collar Americans.”
— Publishers Weekly“Puts forth an impressive catalog of Democratic disappointments, more than enough to make liberals uncomfortable.”
— BooklistRead by the author, whose voice resounds with intelligence and commitment. Accordingly, his audience can't help but grab onto the message.
— ElectricRev.netThomas Frank is the author of several nonfiction books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Wrecking Crew and What’s the Matter with Kansas? A former opinion columnist for the Wall Street Journal, he is the founding editor of the Baffler and a monthly columnist for Harper’s.