Thomas Frank: The Audacity of Nope

[babylonsister]

In the WSJ, no less!

The Audacity of Nope
August 13, 2008; Page A15


It sounds very nice to say, as Barack Obama has done perhaps too much, that the upcoming election is about "hope" and "change." But those anodyne words conceal what I think is the public's true desire: Negation.

Come November, voters will have a chance to rid themselves of a political order that they have come to hate. Sen. Obama's task is to help them heave it overboard.

It seems hard to believe after all the happy Republican talk a few years ago about a "permanent majority," but the public is now more unified in its antipathy toward the GOP than it has been in a long time -- maybe since Watergate, maybe since the Hoover administration.

From where I sit, the change in public opinion is striking. For the past week I've been on a tour promoting my new book, an account of the sometimes ingenious ways in which conservatives have wrecked government.

This is the second time I have written and promoted a book criticizing the conservative movement -- the other one having been published in 2004. Back then, as I recall, when I would talk on the radio and take calls from listeners, about half of the folks who phoned in just wanted to inform me that I was full of it.

This time, however, defenders of the faith are pretty scarce. Sometimes they pick up the phone to request that I go as hard on Democrats as I do on Republicans. Sometimes they want to engage me in philosophical debates about liberty, equality and justice, or the inherent problems of big government.

To my recollection, though, not one has yet tried to defend the current administration.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121858664610635097.html?mod=todays_columnists

[BrklynLiberal]

1. "not one has yet tried to defend the current administration."

It is difficult to defend the indefensible...

[groovedaddy]

2. In Kentucky there is a saying: "People won't walk across the street

to vote FOR someone but they will walk a mile to vote AGAINST them."

[MrModerate]

3. If so . . . with they vote against the "uppity" guy who's waaay too flash . . .

Or against the ancient tribune of the discredited empire?

[groovedaddy]

4. The last poll has McCain up in KY 55-37 over Obama... which brings to mind Mark Twain's

quote on Kentucky:
"When the end of the world comes, I'm moving to Kentucky. Everything happens 10 years later there!"