Listen, Liberal
by Thomas Frank · first published 2016
19mentions
9recommended by
17HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned
53% recommend47% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Argues the Democratic Party drifted from working-class concerns toward professional elites and markets, and shows how that shaped American politics since the Clinton era. For readers of US politics and class divides.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
How the Democratic Party lost its working class, and what happened afterward.
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Mentions per year
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…extracted all that the market will allow, and now need to extract even more, using the power of the state to increase their control over society and extract more resources from it. I recommend reading Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank. He has some choice words for the professional class, and a good history of their ascendancy.
on “The problem with America’s upper-middle class and meritocracy” ↗Well that was a bit unusual: > Posted by Thomas Frank ... > Reading Thomas Frank's new book, Listen, Liberal, or What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? [...] ... > Let me just add that, as Frank makes clear in his brilliant new work [...] ... > [...] Frank does a typically brainy thing. You usually…
on “The Blue State Model: How the Democrats Created a "Liberalism of the Rich"” ↗If you think the previous administration was "better", you probably haven't read Thomas Frank's book, "Listen, Liberal!". Thomas Frank is a lifelong Democrat and an actual liberal. It illustrates how US politics were hijacked, and the horrible policies of the administrations since Bill Clintons inauguration. If you are…
on “Call for the Resignation of FCC Chairman Ajit Varadaraj Pai” ↗Since I appreciate your list, here’s a couple more about the growing class divide. - The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class - book, Guy Standing - Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? - book, Thomas Frank
on “Texas-Style Blackouts Are the Future” ↗There is a whole book on this phenomena with a kitchy title: http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People/d... The book was really enlightening and went through some of reasons of the rise of Donald Trump. The one in the forefront being liberals have removed all protections from the…
on “Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?” ↗"Listen, Liberal!" by Thomas Frank. A must-read if you care about politics in America
on “Ask HN: What good books have you read in 2016?” ↗Thomas Frank on Listen Liberal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38JNg210L24 I also suggest the following talk by Mark Blyth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkm2Vfj42FY which concisely outlines the economics behind the decline of…
on “All Hollowed Out the lonely poverty of America’s white working class” ↗> "peer-to-peer lending service in India" (odd to hear the Christian and Islamic sin of usury being praised as altruism) You might enjoy "Listen Liberal" by Thomas Frank (the guy who wrote "what's the matter with Kansas"). He takes the modern "left" to task for sucking up to capital, and is particularly hilariously venomous against the "microloans" that…
on “Silicon Valley: A Reality Check (2017)” ↗…collar work, union and nonunion, during my professional career. It is indeed depressing and was never more palpable, IME, than in academia of all places. Thomas Frank wrote a great book on this shift in Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
on “Striking to End Suicide Shifts, Frito-Lay Workers Ask People to Drop the Doritos” ↗…why the republicans have an opening, even on social issues. The 'whassamadda kansas' guy has made an entire career of noticing this, but nobody listens to him. Particularly hilarious in his last book, "Listen Liberal" was his skewering of the "microfinance" fetish of the "left" -aka, let's get the third world in hawk to American userers. It's a titanic shift; I'm old enough to remember guys like Walter Mondale and…
on “Martin Gurri and the ungovernable public” ↗I mostly agree with you, and I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you 2 weeks ago, but I just read a book ("Listen, Liberal" by Thomas Frank) that makes some interesting points about how liberals have shifted from representing working people to representing professionals, and to worshiping innovation. While free trade and…
on “Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis” ↗Thomas Frank wrote his latest book about it. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/08/review-listen-liberal >For Frank, the central defining tendency of the modern Democratic Party is its domination by “professionals,” the highly-credentialed, data-driven Best and Brightest that Obama stuffed his cabinet with.
on “Metro areas suffering from brain drain or benefiting from brain concentration” ↗This is an article written by acclaimed author Thomas Frank ("What's the Matter with Kansas", "Listen, Liberal") in July 2016. The Democrats ignored the message and Trump was elected as a result. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/reveng...
on “Tech’s Wealthy Enclaves Hurt the Country and Tech Itself” ↗This is probably going to get buried now, but in case you come back to this thread, thanks for pointing me toward "Listen, Liberal." Checking it out now -- I read Thomas Frank in The Nation every week, but I didn't know about this one.
on “Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis” ↗…inspire such visceral feelings. While some may argue that liberals aren't leftists (but are rather good-cop), nevertheless many leftists do this too. The dynamics are explained in Thomas Frank's book "Listen, Liberal", David Graeber's essay "Army of Altruists: On the alienated right to do good", and Participatory Economics's coverage of the coordinator class.