Thomas Frank lecture
Tonight was kind of the kick-off of events for me. I went to the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis just a few blocks away to hear NYT (and now WSJ) columnist Thomas Frank. He is touring in support of his latest book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.
Thomas himself is a very perky, accessible, cynical, rather boyish guy. He physically reminded me of a young George Will (eeek!! He'd probably hate that description!), but with a twinkle in his eye. While he made his very serious points, he did so in a breezy, oftentimes funny way.
A quick example of his impishness. When he took the stage -- and by stage I mean the stage of the worship space -- he immediately whipped out a bottle of water, took off the cap, and off-handedly tossed it into an ornate ritual basin next to the lectern/pulpit! He immediately snatched it out and apologized profusely... but with a little twinkle in his eye. Now, the universalists are a very liberal bunch, and this was no Catholic baptismal font or holy water basin, so I don't think it was a big deal. Everyone laughed (I think!) But...um...still....
Anyway, the point of Frank's book, as I understand it, is this. The conservative movement has a bedrock belief in the power of the market as the proper driving social force in human society, as against the idea of citizens coming together to order their own society. Since they believe that the market rules, they naturally despise the institution of government, and have sought to destroy it or hobble it wherever they can. Everywhere, that is, but where it serves their interests. And their interests are basically to make money. Among others, one thing that follows from this is corrupt government and scandal, of the kind we have increasingly seen during the Bush years. Frank claims that aside from the scandal, the bad governance is intentional; in effect, they want to govern badly so the public will lose confidance in government! Another thing that follows from this view of government is rampant privatization and outsourcing of government functions.
One way they do this, according to Frank, is by gutting the civil service. They replace career civil servants (whom they see as left-leaning and obstructionist) with loyal party members, many of whom have no other real qualification for the office they hold. And often they are from the very industries their agencies are meant to regulate! The result is incompetence; his example was the FEMA disaster during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Although Frank is clearly -- jubilantly! -- partisan, he did not spare the Dems some responsibility. He also pointed out that after years of this effort by conservatives, the problem is now systemic, and will be immensely difficult to change. The problem, he says, is the presence of huge amounts of money at play in politics. And he claims the biggest problem is the disparity in wealth between the small percent of those at the top of the economic spectrum and the rest of the populace. He was pretty candid in admitting that even if Barack Obama is elected, he will have a very, very difficult time changing it. I should add that he nevertheless seemed excited about Barack and was trying to keep things moving so we could all get out in time to watch the acceptance speech!
In response to some questions, Frank was refreshingly candid about admitting he really didn't know what the heck to do about all this! He had no real solution to offer, other than to try to hold the scoundrels, whoever and wherever they might be, accountable.
Thomas himself is a very perky, accessible, cynical, rather boyish guy. He physically reminded me of a young George Will (eeek!! He'd probably hate that description!), but with a twinkle in his eye. While he made his very serious points, he did so in a breezy, oftentimes funny way.
A quick example of his impishness. When he took the stage -- and by stage I mean the stage of the worship space -- he immediately whipped out a bottle of water, took off the cap, and off-handedly tossed it into an ornate ritual basin next to the lectern/pulpit! He immediately snatched it out and apologized profusely... but with a little twinkle in his eye. Now, the universalists are a very liberal bunch, and this was no Catholic baptismal font or holy water basin, so I don't think it was a big deal. Everyone laughed (I think!) But...um...still....
Anyway, the point of Frank's book, as I understand it, is this. The conservative movement has a bedrock belief in the power of the market as the proper driving social force in human society, as against the idea of citizens coming together to order their own society. Since they believe that the market rules, they naturally despise the institution of government, and have sought to destroy it or hobble it wherever they can. Everywhere, that is, but where it serves their interests. And their interests are basically to make money. Among others, one thing that follows from this is corrupt government and scandal, of the kind we have increasingly seen during the Bush years. Frank claims that aside from the scandal, the bad governance is intentional; in effect, they want to govern badly so the public will lose confidance in government! Another thing that follows from this view of government is rampant privatization and outsourcing of government functions.
One way they do this, according to Frank, is by gutting the civil service. They replace career civil servants (whom they see as left-leaning and obstructionist) with loyal party members, many of whom have no other real qualification for the office they hold. And often they are from the very industries their agencies are meant to regulate! The result is incompetence; his example was the FEMA disaster during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Although Frank is clearly -- jubilantly! -- partisan, he did not spare the Dems some responsibility. He also pointed out that after years of this effort by conservatives, the problem is now systemic, and will be immensely difficult to change. The problem, he says, is the presence of huge amounts of money at play in politics. And he claims the biggest problem is the disparity in wealth between the small percent of those at the top of the economic spectrum and the rest of the populace. He was pretty candid in admitting that even if Barack Obama is elected, he will have a very, very difficult time changing it. I should add that he nevertheless seemed excited about Barack and was trying to keep things moving so we could all get out in time to watch the acceptance speech!
In response to some questions, Frank was refreshingly candid about admitting he really didn't know what the heck to do about all this! He had no real solution to offer, other than to try to hold the scoundrels, whoever and wherever they might be, accountable.
posted by Your_pops at 9:34 PM
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