Who has read "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

[BurtWorm]

I have. It wasn't the last word on the subject of conservative subversion of American democracy that I was hoping for, but it's well worth reading, certainly.

[Union Thug]

1. I think it did a great job of describing...

the tactics used by the conservatives to shift the class war from one of economics to one of 'culture' (for lack of a better term). Great book.

[BurtWorm]

2. That indeed it did do.

And indeed for that reason alone it is well worth reading.

[JI7]

3. i read some of his articles and he said Kerry

embraced hollywood and whoopie goldberg's "attacks" on bush rather than rejecting them. and that it's an example of democrats not getting it and why people in places like kansas support republicans.

but on du there were threads attacking kerry for not defending whoopie and allowing republicans to tell us what to do.

[BurtWorm]

4. If Franks said that, I'd be surprised.

Sounds like a pretty trite criticism of a completely trivial news story. The only idiots who would be upset by something racy someone said at the convention would be someone who believes every little thing they say on FOX and ABC radio, and those people aren't Democrats.

[Arianrhod]

5. I read the short version that was published in Harper's

and thought his analysis was quite close to the mark. The best way, as he points out, to get people to vote against their interests is to make them think their interests lie somewhere else--preferably, somewhere far from the genuine point. Never allow them to focus on what they are losing; stir up their emotions instead, and place the blame on someone/something else, something electrifying. Like Falwell saying that Sept 11 was caused by lesbians.

Propagandists have been using this technique for millennia.