Listen, Liberal --or-- Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?

Listen, Liberal by Thomas Frank, 305 pages

            The last 30 years of U.S. economic policy, which have seen stagnancy or decline for most real wages, the economic collapse of hundreds of small towns and cities, the de-industrialization of the nation, soaring inequality and a stunningly savage assault on America's most vulnerable populations, is often misinterpreted by liberals. These events are wrongly attributed to a combination of the cackling villainy of the Republicans and the well-meaning incompetence of the Democrats. Far from being defeats or "mistakes" on the part of the Democratic Party, they were, in fact, some of its greatest successes.
            Thomas Frank lays out the rationale for this thesis in Listen, Liberal, a history of the Democratic Party from the late 1970s to the present. He explains that the above events, along with the near-complete annihilation of organized labor as a meaningful political force, can only be viewed as defeats for the Democrats if one still perceives them as a party representing the interests of a majority of Americans. Frank explains the process, beginning in the early 1970s, by which the Party gradually purged itself of any significant labor influence, and came to represent the interests of the professional class: doctors, lawyers, engineers, managers, scientists, and a bevy other "well-graduated" groups. This class represents the top 10% of the income scale, and while they aren't doing as spectacularly well as the top 1%, they have quite consistently benefited over the last three decades, while most of the population either tread water or slowly sank.
             Seen in this light, the Democratic Party's policy record is an enviable success. The "stunning assault" I mentioned before, targeted overwhelmingly at poor,  minority, and working class communities, is simply the byproduct of highly lucrative investment strategy. Further, it is a strategy which recent, ostensibly left-wing Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama have enthusiastically participated in through their energetic support of disastrous "free trade" deals. While the Republican Party's slow descent into hysterical nationalism, racism and wealth worship should be factored into an account of America's declining prosperity and social mobility, Frank argues, the finger should first point at the party claiming to represent the interests of the common person.