The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank is about how Conservatives, by which I refer to Jack Abramhoff and his confrères Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, started a process that resulted in our government being turned into a cash cow for Conservatives.
The story begins with Abramhoff and the boys turning the College Republicans from a GOP-funded Eagle Scout troop to a marketing firm specializing in social agitation tactics for Conservative interests. I don't know that these gentlemen truly intended to destroy the effectiveness of the government. It seems possible they simply saw a business opportunity. It was definitely a money-maker and it gained power for all three men. The only competition they could claim was Richard Viguerie, and the field was so new their clients overlapped without collision. If Abramhoff had understood the concept enough...
Then again, the story starts well before Abramhoff, Norquist and Reed got their first grant. Mr. Frank takes you back a bit in history, particularly in the second chapter but a little bit in all of them. The intent is to show the roots of Conservatism are such that the must break the government when they are in charge. I don't know if 'must' is the case, but they got close enough that they can't be allowed another crack at it.
Mr. Frank walks you through a number of key scenarios in the development of modern conservatism in post-Nixon days: the College Republicans' work with South Africa from which the International Freedom Foundation bloomed, the Conservative tendency to mimic its enemies (I think its projection rather than mimicry), the practice of placing people who oppose the existence of a process in charge ot the process, the establishment of peonage on an American territory for the benefit of American corporations. He brings out a few historical things I wasn't aware of but it all fit so nicely it was more confirmation than surprise. In fact, it reads much like the history books I've been reading recently. The same sort of research is necessary, though the fact that you're explaining things that happened recently makes the research much easier.
So I enjoyed the book...maybe enjoy is the wrong term...but because I'm really familiar with the ground he covers I found myself thinking in more meta terms about it.
On the dust cover for The Wrecking Crew is a blurb by George Will: “Frank is a formidable controversialist—imagine Michael Moore with a trained brain and a conscience.” I think Mr. Will made up “controversialist,” but if it means what I think it does he's wrong, at least as far as this book goes. There's nothing controversial in it at this point. It's gotten a lot of press in venues popular with popular with progressives, though. Mr. Franks makes a good story of it, but that's not the sole reason for the attention its gotten.
Books like The Wrecking Crew are an outgrowth of the liberal blog network. The liberal blog network, bloggers and commenters, is its target audience. It's a mass market, the liberal equivalent of Conservative talk radio and it spawns books for much the same reason as talk radio does...because books are authoritative. They lend weight to the ideas within them. Like books targeting wingers, these liberal blog books are not written by reporters that feign objectivity. They are written by journalists and intended to tell stories, because you may need details to be convinced but it's the story you remember.
In a way, this book is as close to Obama Nation as a progressive gets (which is not very close, but...). Both are essentially collections of ideas current in their respective marketplace. The difference between them mirrors the difference between Conservative talk radio and a Liberal blog. Talk radio is an extended roar of frustration (at best). Liberal blogs are inhabited by wonks for the most part. Corsi's book is a story stringing together a collection of innuendo supported only by other innuendo because that is what convinces Conservatives. Frank's book is a story connecting externally documentable facts because that is what convinces Liberals. As a result, you can actually check Mr. Frank's endnotes without embarrassing him.
So, do I recommend the book? I think there are people who should read it. I try to at least sound reasonable but the fact is I see no grounds for compromise with people who have no compromise in them. People who still feel we can work with Conservatives may be disabused of that fantasy by this book...and there's no curse words in it. That's a lot more than I can promise if I were to try explaining it.
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