Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With Kansas?" is a subscriber to the theory that so-called "values politics" and lifestyle issues are just sophisticated versions of that old carnival con the shell game, in which the object is to keep the rube's eye off the shell with the pea under it.
"The trick never ages: The illusion never wears off. Vote to stop abortion; receivea rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation. ... Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization."
As a result of this gussied up and newly sophisticated political con job, Franks sees the country as "a panorama of madness and delusion ... of sturdy blue-collar patriots reciting the Pledge while they strangle their own life chances; of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or proper health care; of working-class guys ... delivering up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way of life and transform their region into a 'rustbelt,' and strike people like them blows from which they will never recover."
So here we are at the ultimate level of the con game -- if you don't support Bush's misbegotten war or you object to how this administration has fouled up in carrying it out, you're unpatriotic.
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http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17735
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