Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson are two go-to political scientists anyone should listen to if they find themselves suddenly considering the disconnect between the legislation routinely fought for by the GOP–legislation that ultimately provides most of its benefits toward the über-rich–and the economic station that so much of the GOP base find themselves in. Their latest book together, Let Them Eat Tweets, focuses on this disconnect and the struggle the GOP faces in its commitment to ideals that benefit a plutocratic elite within a democratic framework. They do a fair job of it in my estimation and succeed in making their case that the current GOP serves two constituencies of drastically differing sizes: The über-wealthy on one hand, and a subset of the working and middle classes on the other. Republican elites serve the rich by passing legislation reducing tax rates for corporations and wealthy individuals and by repealing regulations protecting common goods (air, water, etc.); they serve the middle and working classes quite differently though – most often through symbolic and vocal gestures like “defending Christmas” and whatever else seems to have traction in the moment. The authors stay true to their academic pedigrees, making their case with data and analysis rather than ideologically-driven bombastic assertion like so much of the nonsense that shows up on the “Social Science and Current Events” sections of most bookstores of late.

If they fail–and I think they do on the following point–it is because they have written a book that will only be read by those who have the least to gain from their insights. Their thesis, that the GOP relies on a culture-war obsessed base to fuel the machine’s ability to defund and destroy programs benefiting the majority of Americans in efforts to reduce taxes on the very wealthy, is well-tilled soil. From G.William Domhoff’s Who Rules America? to Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas?, to any of the latest rounds of titles dealing with the impact of Identity and Partisanship on electoral politics (see: Sides, Tessler and Vavreck’s Identity Crisis or Klein’s Why We’re Polarized), I feel like I’ve been reading this book, or some version of it, for the last twenty years. What it offers that the others do not however, is essentially a closer (although not limited) view on the recent events of the last four years or so. But this is not a new phenomenon. The names have changed, but the trends are long-standing.

The failure in writing to their audience goes beyond the authoring of a book that simply dunks on the folks not reading it (although to be clear, these are solid dunks, impeccably argued and sourced and true). Implicit in their larger argument–explicit in exceedingly limited measure to be fair–is that Democrats should be doing more to focus on the economic and social concerns these currently republican constituencies are focused on. By not calling the party or its members out they do a disservice in my opinion; criticizing the GOP is not enough – more must be sought from the Democratic party and at least a few more pages can reasonably have been expected by the authors on the point.

When one views parties as simply massive coalitions among differing stakeholders and classes, it is hard to imagine how the Democratic party folds in rural Georgian voters who currently fly TRUMP 2020 flags in their front yard with BLM protestors in Portland demanding police accountability and seeking equal protection under the law. But then, that is the role of a party. To be a big enough tent to get the things done that need doing — not just to narrowly win the occasional election. What Hacker and Pierson have done here is successfully explain how similarly disparate parts of the electorate–a minority with enough money to fund the party, and a majority with the numbers to make winning elections possible–are effectively catered to by the current GOP, with enough success to still be relevant. What I hope to see in the future is a Democratic party that has found better ways to attract a much larger coalition to govern effectively going forward.

Equally valid, a hope exists that the GOP and its allies either abandons their commitments to the plutocratic elite or shifts their focus to focus on substantive legislative efforts that truly benefit the working and middle classes in this country, ceasing the culture-war lip-service that debases so many of their voters and diminishes the political discourse in the country while doing little to nothing to address the growing inequality in America, or address the challenges that must be confronted for the country to remain a truly indispensable nation in the world. So long as the current model works however, there is little motivation for the GOP to change.

-30-

last full listen: West Coast Grooves, Guthrie Govan

currently reading: Freedom: An Unruly History, Annelien de Dijn