Listen, Liberal ─ Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?

From the bestselling author of What's the Matter With Kansas, a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics—a book that asks: What's the matter with Democrats?
Liberals like to believe that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if only those awful Republicans are beaten into submission, then the country will be on the right course. Unfortunately this view fundamentally misunderstands the modern Democratic Party. Drawing on years of research and firsthand reporting, Thomas Frank points out that the Democrats have in fact 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 laissez-faire consensus at all. Wall Street gets its bailouts, wages keep falling, and the free-trade deals keep coming. With sardonic wit and lacerating logic, Frank 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, he charges, has largely eclipsed the party's old middle-class commitment. For certain favored groups in a handful of cities, this has meant prosperity. But for the nation as a whole, it is a one-way ticket into the abyss of inequality. Now 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.

THOMAS FRANK is the author of Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What’s the Matter with Kansas?. A former columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Harper’s, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and writes regularly for Salon. He lives outside Washington, D.C.