What's the matter with America? What explains the dysfunction at the
dark heart of our politics? Over the last
thirty-five years the Republicans have transformed themselves from an
aristocratic minority into the nation's dominant political party, a
brawling, beer-drinking buddy of the working man. The strategy by which
they have won this triumph is instantly familiar and yet so bizarre
it's sometimes hard to believe it's actually happened: Think of Richard
Nixon extolling the virtues of the "silent majority," or Ronald Reagan
shaking his head at those crazy college professors, or George W. Bush
sticking up for the "regular Americans," or the army of pundits who
have written so eloquently in recent months about the humble folk of
the "red states." [more]
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