TPM is hosting a Book Club on Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas that's really very good. Todd Gitlin and Ed Kilgore leveled fairly devastating critiques against the tome (Kilgore more so than Gitlin) and Frank threw out a device cleverly eviscerating Gitlin's rhetorical trope ("vulgar marxism") without actually dealing with any of Gitlin's points. In other words, a good time is being had by all.
But too much focus is being put on Frank's historical read and personal authenticity. Insofar as the book has touched a chord among Democrats, it's been as a diagnosis for current ills and an easy-to-swallow prescription for solving them. In short, Frank says Democrats are losing because poor folks are getting tricked by sneaky Republicans and Democrats, for their part, just aren't being Democratic enough. If we were more liberal, the beacon of our social programs and redistributive tax policies would shine right through the fog of culture.
