Jonathan Chait -- The Big Con
===============================

Read this book in order to inoculate yourself.

If you read "What's the matter with Kansas", you likely learned
about voters in the U.S. voting against their own self interest,
that is, voting to elect politicians that pass legislation that is
against their constituents' interest.  

So, your next step might be to learn *how* voters are tricked or
"conned" into voting in ways that result in support for policies that
they don't really want.  This book by Jonathan Chait will tell you
about those strategies, devices, tricks, and cons.

Here are a few:

- Using the memory of beloved "Saint Ronald Reagan", even though
  that memory is a distorted one.

- Using the "big government is bad; small government is good" trick,
  even with those who are most in need of government services and
  those who depend on and want government benefits.

- Blocking out the alternatives -- These is a lack of intellectual
  expression for fiscal moderation among Republicans, in part because
  the radical, anti-tax wing of the republican party has all the think
  tanks and media outlets.

- Following a hard-core anti-tax ideology in spite of the fact that
  most Republican voters favor taxes for services and benefits.

- Rationalizing and prettying up the George W. Bush tax cuts -- (1)
  the tax cuts will spur growth; (2) we must fight a coming recession;
  (3) these tax cuts will make the tax code more fair for the poor.
  None of these rationals turned out to be true.  But, as Chait says,
  when you've already made up your mind that you want tax cuts, "any
  rational will do".

- Campaigning as one thing, governing and legislating as another.  The
  glaring example of this was George W. Bush's presenting himself as a
  "compassionate conservative" during the presidential election
  campaign, then governing from the far right (tax cuts for the rich
  and privatization of Social Security) when elected.

- Focusing on "character" during political campaigns rather than on
  issues as as means of avoiding discussion of policies that are
  unpopular even though they are a part of the Republican right's
  agenda.

Part of the message of this book is that there no longer is a
moderate right and a moderate left in U.S. politics.  There is only
a radical far right and a centrist left.  Thus, there is no
effective counter-balance to the Republican swing to the far right. 
Radicalism in the Republican party is no longer the fringe, it has
become the mainstream of that party.

For more on the Republican swing toward radicalism and the schemes
used to produce it, you may also want to read my review of
Stefan Halper "America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives
and the Global Order".

In the U.S. we are headed for an extreme inequality of wealth. 
Republicans block a discussion of that move toward inequality by
labeling it "class warfare".  Reading this book of Chait's at least
gives you a warning about how that result is being produced and,
hopefully, will encourage us to discuss it.

05/17/2010

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