What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, Or

Excellent book, filled with important facts. I had forgotten that Bill Clinton had agreed with Gingrich to privatize social security, i.e. hand it over to the tender mercies of Wall Street. Fortunately, the Monica business exploded the very day after and saved real FDR liberalism from traitors like those who now run the party. A neoliberal neocon Democratic party is a disaster and must be redeemed, if not by Sanders, then by a successor. Franks' best book yet.

"Listen, Liberal" by Thomas Frank, the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas" is a must read for any political junkie who wonders how the Democratic Party has become a feckless, timid imitation of the party of FDR by turning its back on working people and becoming a party run by smug, well schooled elite technocrats.

An eye opening message to consider. This book encouraged me to seek other programs and interviews this author has been on recently. Wow! Sure narrows the focus on our political system----that's why people like Bernie Sanders becomes more meaningful for us citizens.

This is a killer read about liberalism, and the Hillary phenomenon! It fairly well articulates everything you've been thinking about the Democratic Party of late, and the directions it's gone in, and why. Particularly, if you are liberal (the bottom 80%) you'll love this book.

Strong, almost strident take in how liberals and Democrats surrounded themselves in a bubble since the Clintons' we're in the White House......the rise of the professional class and the abandonment of working class voters...once the Democratic base.

This book provides a history of how the liberals changed from fighting for the working class and racial equality, to a party of the corporate democratic elite. If liberal and progressives want to start taking back this country, we must learn from our mistakes and evolve.

This is a concise and very accurate assessment of what the dems have (not) done. We must remind them of this whenever we get the chance. It is an incredible description of our need for a Bernie Sanders without once mentioning his name!

This is a heartbreaking book for any new deal democrat. This explains how the party that helped the unions rise and was helped by them turned their collective back on workers except bankers and hedge fund salesman. It explains how Glass-Stiegel trickled down to Dodd-Frank and may just disappear. It explains how we can call a jobless anything a recovery. It explains why when the market collapsed it was not necessary to send any of the conmen responsible to prison and what disguise the divine right of kings is currently wearing. Nothing actually explains NAFTA and TAPP.

Painful to read but it actually changed my thinking about a number of issues. I found the writing style a bit too sarcastic for my taste but the basic points are still valid. The party of FDR is no more. This book should be read by every liberal who still can't quite wrap their head around the 2016 election debacle.

Frank explains as he has in other books on modern politics why things are so screwed up. A lot of things that occurred in Democratic administrations that didn't make sense at the time, now do thanks to someone pointing them out. A must read to understand why the party of the people is only the party of some of the people.

Very insightful stuff from Thomas Frank. His book should be required reading for all we progressives "shocked" by the results of the 2016 election. We need to reboot the Democratic party and get back to supporting values that matter to the majority of working class Americans. Otherwise we are likely to be in a minority for many years to come.

Written by a liberal, for liberals, Thomas Frank gives a scathing critique of the Democratic Party from the Nixon presidency to President Clinton. Democrats and everyone else wondering how the 2016 election unfolded as it did would do well to read this book immediately.

Just stunning it is clarity and insight into our political system. The Republican Party, rightfully, shares most of the blame for the "appalachiafication" of our society (for which we use the euphemism, 'inequality'), but the Democrats have played their part, too. Obama, though he campaigned on reducing inequality did very little to do so when elected. After reading this book, I understand the mindset of Obama and other Establishment Democrats and why they will continue to do nothing.

Thomas Frank does an outstanding job out lining the changes that have occurred and what caused the destruction of our Middle Class economy, outlining in detail, the legislation that was implemented, the people responsible for pushing the various agendas forward, above all he exposes the political corruption that lays within the system. Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama, all have done irreparable harm to labor and the Middle Class all the while paying tribute to the Professional Class (The One Percent). Corporate America.

One of the best analysis out there of where, when and how the Democratic Party took a wrong turn and why its leadership continues to remain tone deaf to the democratic wing of the party to steer it left. Especially important now as more and more evidence of collusion between the DNC and the Hillary campaign comes out.

Liberals, wake up! Reading Frank's book is a real eye opener if you are suffering from the illusion that the Democratic Party hasn't been instrumental in plotting the downfall of the American way of life.

Explains how the US Democrats under Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have lost touch with ordinary Americans and their interests in favour of a preoccupation with trendy causes and solutions that advance the interests and self-images of the wealthy professionals that now dominate and control the party - and there are clear although hopefully only partial analogies with the ALP Left and the Greens in Australia and Labour in the U.K. Under Tony Blair and perhaps also Jeremy Corbyn

This opened my eyes, and ears, to the rhetoric that is used today. For example, I started noticing how much I heard the word "innovation" from the democrats, and how vague that a term it is. I also drove by the unused bike lanes in my city and laughed. I'm still a liberal, but I don't consider myself a leftist anymore.

Great book. This is the real reason that Clinton and the Democrats lost to Donald Trump.
It was years in the making, I hate having Trump as President but it serves the Democrats right
for abandoning workers, unions, regular people. We're the victims of their strategy.

He' s speaking the truth to Democrats. But the establishment, in- the-bubble Democrats don't want to hear it. If establishment Democrats want to stop the slide to oblivion they should take this book to heart. True Liberals (not establishment Democrats) will get an explanation for why they feel so bad for the last 25 years

This book describes quite well the reality that we face. I concur with the author mostly as I have witnessed and worried over these ideas for some time. It gives voice to that nagging notion that something is quite wrong.

Frank gets to what all of Hillary's supporters try to avoid;the complicity of the left in the abandonment of the working class. Bankers, professionals, and appropriate educational pedigrees determine one's worth in the upper echelons of the party. A well researched polemic that calls upon the democratic party to fess up and quit pretending who it is they represent.

I gnashed my teeth throughout this book, though I stopped gnashing many times to laugh. Ultimately, Frank exposes both the myth and the reality behind the "liberalism" of the Democratic Party. Well written, humorous... but, will also make you despair to realize our plutocracy is just one party away from totalitarianism.

This work answers the questions that plague liberals. What happened? Frank outlines the conservative nature of the Democratic party from the 1980s to today.

What I would like to see now is what happened to the anti Vietnam war and pro civil rights people. Did they change their views or did they disappear?

This book takes one thru the history of the Democratic Party to the present day. It sheds much light on the way the party of the Blu Collar man made a deal with high tech and business. Those who think it is a party of the people need to read this for enlightenment.

Excellent, enlightening critique of the contemporary Democratic party! Now I understand why the Democratic party is supporting "Free Trade" deals which have been so injurious to our American Workers! The Democratic Party needs to get back to its roots and support our Workers!

Mr Frank. In his astute and well written book lays out reasons why H Clinton lost the election to an unqualified person. I hope every democrat and independent reads his book before the 2018 midterm election.

a thoughtful, cogent, hard-hitting critique of the shortcomings, missteps and failures of the Democrats...required reading for progressives who want to take back the country from rigtht-wing nativists and Trump.

This book is essential reading in the era of Trump. The democrats had become too opportunistic and elitist over the years. Maybe someone in the democratic party leadership will read this book, and it will be reformed. I doubt this will happen but we need new strategy after trump's victory.

Very informative of what we liberals have been doing wrong. I have learned not to expect much from books like this when it comes to proposing solutions. I got about what I expected. If solutions were easy, they would have been done already.

This is the first book Thomas Frank has written about this subject. But he is right on. Democrats are no longer the party of the people. We now have two parties of the rich. How exciting is that? Buy this book and wake up to who you are voting for. It's enlightening and explains a lot of mysteries.

Frank explains that Democrats and the American liberals have move away from basic pocketbook issues that benefit the working class and lower middle class. He notes they have become more interested in a narrow set of issues that appeal to upper class and the intelligentsia.

There's the fantasy of what the Democrats are, and then there are facts. It's a strong opinion piece with a lot of undeniable facts demonstrating how establishment democrats are compelled from without or driven from within to protect the wealthiest and victimize the poorest people in this country and beyond.