What's (Really) the Matter with Liberals?
by Mac Johnson
Posted May 3, 2005
In 1979, the United States Senate was 61% Democrat and was run by Majority Wizard (Oops! I mean Majority "Leader") Robert C. Byrd. The House of Representatives was an unbelievable 67% Democrat and led by the memorable bipartisan Tip O'Neill. Jimmy Carter sat in the White House; he probably did more than that, but we know he sat in the White House. And the Supreme Court remained an activist institution.
Then, in 1980, Ronald Reagan -- employing only a grandfatherly grin and magic hair cream -- tricked the good-hearted but gullible people of America into electing him President. This did not bother Liberals, however, since they expect the simple-minded common folk to get fooled from time to time. Strangely though, even after governing openly as a Conservative, Mr. Reagan was re-elected in 1984 in a historic landslide, then re-elected to a third term in 1988 under the name "George H. W. Bush." Other than Bill Clinton getting into office with an inspiring 43% of the vote in a three-way race in 1992 (then winning his 49% "mandate" while running essentially unopposed in 1996), Democrats have suffered mounting defeat at the polls for the last 25 years, both nationally and in the States.
Today, Republicans -- led by conservative thinkers, energized by conservative grass roots organizations and backed-up by a fledgling conservative media -- control the White House for the fifth time in seven terms, control the Senate with a 55% majority, control the House of Representatives with a 53% majority, and stand within one seat of reigning-in the Supreme Court. At this point, some liberals think they might see a trend.
Among these is Thomas Frank, author of the bestselling What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives won the Heart of America. In the new afterword to the paperback edition of his book, appearing as an essay in the May 12 issue of The New York Review of Books, Mr. Frank asks further: What's the Matter with Liberals?
It's a question we've all asked.
However, I do not think Mr. Frank answered the question correctly in his essay, and so I would like to offer my thoughts for consideration.
To Mr. Frank, the only thing wrong with liberals is that they have not yet learned to deal with the issue of manufactured "backlash" against their cultural policies. Briefly, Mr. Frank believes that, since the economic interests of the working class are unarguably best served by Liberals, working class support for Republican candidates can be explained only by… Republican trickery! This trickery takes the form of "the culture war," through which Republicans manipulate the gullible workers and peasants into rebelling against their only real economic hope -- Democrats. Then, after each election, Republicans retreat to the Country Club, where they tell "You might be a Redneck…" jokes about their supporters, conspire to tax baby milk, and draft legislation "for the greater glory of Wal-Mart." The good-natured but politically naïve liberals, meanwhile, are helpless to stop the Machiavellian machinations of the seamless Republican political juggernaut.
... in part
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