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Editorial Review Product Description
From the author of the landmark bestseller What’s the Matter with Kansas?, a jaw-dropping investigation of the decades of deliberate—and lucrative—conservative misrule In his previous book, Thomas Frank explained why working America votes for politicians who reserve their favors for the rich. Now, in The Wrecking Crew, Frank examines the blundering and corrupt Washington those politicians have given us. Casting back to the early days of the conservative revolution, Frank describes the rise of a ruling coalition dedicated to dismantling government. But rather than cutting down the big government they claim to hate, conservatives have simply sold it off, deregulating some industries, defunding others, but always turning public policy into a private-sector bidding war. Washington itself has been remade into a golden landscape of super-wealthy suburbs and gleaming lobbyist headquarters—the wages of government-by-entrepreneurship practiced so outrageously by figures such as Jack Abramoff. It is no coincidence, Frank argues, that the same politicians who guffaw at the idea of effective government have installed a regime in which incompetence is the rule. Nor will the country easily shake off the consequences of deliberate misgovernment through the usual election remedies. Obsessed with achieving a lasting victory, conservatives have taken pains to enshrine the free market as the permanent creed of state. Stamped with Thomas Frank’s audacity, analytic brilliance, and wit, The Wrecking Crew is his most revelatory work yet—and his most important. Customer Reviews (68) 
Sad but true, depressing yet engrossing
Ok, I'm going to oversimplify here, but bear with me:
A party's whole guiding premise is that government is broken, evil, useless, and creates unnecessary externalities that subvert the market thus government must be destroyed. They campaign on these foundations (and some others to siphon off votes from chumps) and once in power do everything in power to hollow out government and create a shell of a state so that business can prosper.
As broad-stroke oversimplification, that is the heart of Frank's book.
The depressing aspect for a liberal reader is that this foundation is backed up by copious evidence for the prosecution that this is what has happened in fact.Further depressing is that in two years of governance in the executive and four in the legislative, our center-left party has yet to clean up the messes shown by Frank to exist.It is far harder to build the superstructure than to destroy it, as Frank acknowledges that `liberalism' contains the seeds for its own construction.
Overall sad but true, depressing yet engrossing.
THE WRECKING CREW
Author with credentials. Written not from a partisan view but with a view of great concern for America.A must read to understand the past40 years and why in 2010 we have a disfunctional government and polorized population.
this book will boil your blood.
first of all, thomas frank is a very talented writer.he has a knack for answering your next thought or question.
i always suspected conservatives were trying to privatize stuff but i never realized how deep their hatred of a government "for the people" was.it all makes sense now, the blocks on unemployment extensions, end of the world lamenting if the minimum wage is increased, fighting regulation on wall street and banking, defending the worst health care system in the industrialized world, protecting murderers and mass polluters like massey industries and bp. privatizing war so it may never end.filling the epa, labor, dept. of interior, etc., etc., with business lobbyists and lawyers...
i like most didn't know their whole purpose was to literally gut the federal government of any power.
i'm on a new mission.the people must know.conservatives are gutting our government while blaming liberals for their wreckage.
This book nails it
A very important book for understanding the right wing movement that has gained so much momentum since the '80s.He personalizes the story, and makes it a very easy read.One part that I enjoyed was his description of the blandness of the suburbs of DC, like Loudon county.I think part of the reason why the glass and metal buildings are so generic and anonymous is that the entities in the buildings don't want people to know they are there!They want their evil activites to go quietly unnoticed.Another intersting fact I found was that a very large majority of the radical right (like Jack Abramoff) really like the Godfather movies.I think this helps explain their lawlessness and contempt for government, and also why so many of the radical right have ended up in jail.
Extensive right-wing sources keep it from being just another biased work
I definitely enjoyed reading this book. Thomas Frank goes into extensive detail on the history behind the conservative movement. His use of extensive references from conservatives sources, like the Washington Times, makes it more than just a biased opinion piece as some on the right would claim. His interviews with key conservative figures like Grover Norquist are also interesting to read about.
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