HomeTagged ‘Wall Street Journal’
Thomas Frank: One cheer for the Tea Party
In his regular “Easy Chair” column for Harper’s, Thomas Frank says liberals should appreciate at least one thing about the Tea Party movement:
It has been three years now since the statistical beginning of the recession, and the tide of unemployment is still near full flood. Business investors have taken shelter on higher ground. The housing [...]
Thomas Frank: don’t mess with the Texas Board of Ed.
The Kansas Board of Education is, of course, famous for debating the teaching of evolution in public schools. As recently as 2005, the Board decreed that schools must include Creationism or Intelligent Design in their science curriculum– only to be overruled again in 2007.
The Culture Wars continue to play out in public education, now most [...]
What’s the Matter with Democrats?
Thomas Frank has a notion of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party – why it repeatedly snatches defeat from the jaws of victory:
The answer to the riddle is as plain as the caviar on a lobbyist’s spoon. Democrats don’t speak to angry, working-class people because a lot of them can’t speak to angry, working-class people. [...]
“Tea Party” more popular than Republicans or Democrats
NY Times columnist David Brooks is worried by a recent Wall Street Journal / NBC News Poll which shows the “Tea Party” demonstrators to be more popular than either of the two major political parties. He sees a revolt against “the educated class,” of which he — and his readers — are presumably members.
The Wall [...]
Thomas Frank: Watch out for GOP Populism
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Thomas Frank profiles Republican House member Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who’s adopted some fist-shaking anti-big-business rhetoric that would make some lefties weak at the knees. More tellingly, he’s critical of business at a time when Democrats shy from economic populism, perhaps compromised by their role in giving vast handouts to [...]
Proposed 10-point purity test for Republican candidates
RNC Committeeman Jim Bopp, Jr. has proposed what many are calling a “purity test” for Republican candidates. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Thomas Frank calls it “a ten-point test that Ronald Reagan would flunk.”
Here is the text of the resolution below, courtesy MSNBC.com. You can read what Ron Paul thinks of it here. Interestingly, in [...]
Phill Kline’s awkwardly timed appeal
In his column in the Wall Street Journal this morning, Thomas Frank tells the story of how former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline appealed to his supporters for donations to help him cover his debts from his legal battles with the late Dr. George Tiller as Kline repeatedly attempted to prosecute him for performing illegal [...]
Kansas Populism, then and now
Thomas Frank, in his column in today’s Wall Street Journal, calls the billions of dollars in Wall Street bonuses an outrage, and refers back to, yes, his home state of Kansas and the Populist movement which took the state by storm in the 1890s.
Kansans in the 1890s cried out “raise less corn, and more hell!” [...]