I heard Tom Frank speak recently at the Kansas City Public Library about his new book, “Listen, Liberal”. I’ve known Tom since 2003, when he interviewed me for his earlier book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”
His latest book does to the Democratic Party what the latter did to the Republican Party, i.e. strips away all the ideological window dressing and shows what the real motivations of the party’s leaders are.
Frank’s book doesn’t disappoint, nor did his March 24 speaking appearance.
The organizing principle behind the book is very straightforward. Frank contends the last two Democratic administrations have quietly but effectively taken the party away from its role as champion of the American working class and economic equality.
Instead, Tom shows how the real loyalties of the Democrats have shifted to the professional class, i.e. affluent, well educated, liberals who may have all the politically correct positions on social issues (“gays, guns, and God”) but who are just as adept at promoting their own financial self-interest as any reactionary Republican business mogul.
Indeed, the author gives dozens of examples, large and small, of how the Democratic leadership has betrayed their own political heritage.
Frank makes exactly the same point I’ve made in many of my posts here.
To the extent the Great Recession was caused by federal deregulation of business – which is debatable – almost all the deregulation occurred under Democratic administrations, a fact which is not debatable.
From promoting subprime lending, to repealing banking regulations, to striking trade deals that cause jobs to flow out of the country and cheap imports to flow in, Frank lays the blame squarely at the feet of the Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Obama administrations.
In a play on the phrase, “It took Nixon to open up China!” Frank says it took a Democrat to dismantle much of the New Deal era legislation. This would include telecom deregulation, the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, the 1996 Welfare Reform bill, NAFTA, interstate banking, capital gains tax cuts, and on and on.
At the same time the Democratic Party was pledging fealty to regulatory “reform,” it was assiduously courting the corporate elites of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, with considerable success from the standpoint of adding to the party’s coffers but at the cost of its soul as the party of the Left in America.
I think Frank may be a little naïve in his view of New Deal Democrats as egalitarian crusaders. L.B.J. never saw any conflict between being the creator of Medicare and at the same time protector of the oil depletion allowance and other issues dear to the hearts of Sid Richardson and other independent oil men at the Petroleum Club in Ft. Worth. John Kennedy famously queried; “Does anyone really give a shit what the minimum wage is?” He also invented supply side economics with his tax cuts, which substantially lowered the top marginal rate on earned income by almost 40%.
Still, Frank’s point is well taken. Not only has the modern Democratic Party embraced the wealthy in a way that would startle F.D.R., Harry Truman and Hubert Humphrey, it’s quietly down played its social justice priorities. (This explains the rise of Bernie Sanders, whom Frank supports.)
Frank also pulls no punches in trashing a lot of the pretentious and self-serving excuses and rationalizations offered up by the Democrats’ cheerleaders in the press and academe for this shift. My favorite example of Frank’s use of his unerring B.S. detector is his demolition of a current cherished Democratic truism; i.e. all our social problems can be solved – not the least of which is income inequality – by making sure every American has a college education.
Frank deftly deflates this bit of unchallenged (until now!) conventional wisdom by asking: A) How do we know what jobs people should be trained for? B) How do we know these jobs will be there when people graduate? C) Even if the jobs are available, what assurance is there that they will pay enough for people to be able to repay the costs of their edulcation and then support themselves?
Frank cites his own career path as a holder of a Ph.D.in history.
This shows that you can “follow your passion,” “work hard and excel in your chosen field,” and “get as much education as you can.”
The net result is, to quote Bob Dylan, “Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift!” (except there is no day shift anymore since the factories have been dismantled and shipped to the Third World). There are no jobs for newly minted holders of doctorates in the humanities, even though you’ve checked off all the boxes,so so much for the foregoing admonition that staying in school is a surefire formula for financial success as an individual and for economic prosperity as a society.
Frank brilliantly demonstrates how unshakable this is as the foundation myth of the contemporary progressive creed:
“The only way to end poverty is through education.” Arne Duncan, Obama’s Secretary of Education.
“The best way to improve economic opportunity and to reduce inequality is to increase the educational attainment and skills of the American worker.” Ben Bernanke, Fed. Chairman.
“….[I]n this information age, improving educational outcomes for more young people is now the most important lever for increasing economic growth and narrowing income equality.” Thomas Friedman, Resident Pedant and Bore, New York Times.
As Frank succinctly puts it, “This isn’t really an answer, it’s a moral judgement, handed down by the successful from the vantage of their own success.”
The belief in education as an all-powerful panacea to all our social problems is, he notes, “as open to evidence based refutation as creationism is to fundamentalists.”
Look at all the marvelous social changes that have occurred in Kansas City once we decided to get serious and spent $4 billion on the K.C. Mo. School District! Or, as retired Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent Marge Kaplan once said in a debate with me; “The one thing we know with absolute certainty about education is that the more you spend the better the results!”
The other insight that flies in the face of all the comforting conventional wisdom heard these days from liberals is Frank’s take down of an unthinking acceptance of meritocracy. Simply put, this is the notion that you get paid what you deserve and what you deserve is determined by how well you do in school. As long as the best and the brightest have an opportunity to start up the ladder of social mobility, what’s the problem?
The obvious flaw in this approach as the theoretical basis for a just society is that it consists of the already successful (“the winners”) telling everyone else (“the losers”) to replicate their own formula for success. (“Go out and get some skills!”) It never seems to have dawned on the professional class that this comes off sounding like a smug defense of the status quo.
Being condescended to by someone who tells you he’s better than you because he’s smarter and more educated is ultimately just as offensive as someone telling you he’s better than you because he has more money and comes from a higher social class.
As Frank notes, “There are different hierarchies of power – of wealth, yes, but also of merit, learning, and status.” A British author,Peter Hennessy,wrote a book on this subject, “Establishment and Meritocracy.” He said upward mobility on the professional ladder is; “A self-evidently worthy impulse but it carried risks of callousness and disdain towards those who did not rise in terms of high status and well paid jobs.”
Although Tom grasps this important point, he draws a different conclusion than I would from it. He thinks the bigger danger is that the professional class’s priorities (e.g. more H-1b visas to bring high skilled foreign workers to Silicon Valley) will distract the Democratic Party from its defining mission as friends of working people and social justice warriors.
He had a particularly good answer to the usual taunt of liberal Democrats to their brethren who worry that its new found affinity for the affluent caused the party to neglect the interests of what was once its core constituency (blue collar union members): “Where else are they going to go!”
When Frank gave the answer to this at his March book talk (“To Trump!”), there was an audible gasp in the auditorium. I would give the same answer to the foregoing rhetorical question as Tom Frank, but for a very different reason. Donald Trump is not polling well in the Rust Belt because Obama failed to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933,or nationalize Citigroup and Bank of America, or seek a Canadian style single-payer health care system, to name Tom’s three pet peeves with the Obama administration.
No, the real reason is that Americans don’t like being told they are the intellectual, social, and cultural inferiors of some “well-graduated” (i.e. elitist) professional. Take the comments of Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who was the architect of Obamacare, who bragged that the Obama administration used the ignorance of the American people to pass it. Take the boasts of Ben Rhodes, novelist manqué and Deputy National Security Advisor, who chortled in an interview how the nuclear deal with Iran was sold to the country based on a totally false premise.
Take the comic Josh Barro, who said the best thing about the Obama administration was its raising taxes on the rich in the same breath he pronounced that every time he flew over the Midwest he realized that down there in flyover country lived the morons who watched “2 Broke Girls”.
Take the N.Y.T. and Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi and his comments about Sarah Palin giving her acceptance speech in 2008:
“Just looking at Palin on the podium doesn’t impress. She looks like the chief flight attendant on a Piedmont flight from Winstom-Salem to Cleveland, with only the bags of almonds and the polyester kerchief missing from the picture. With the Junior Anti-Sex League”(that’s to send a ‘dog whistle’ that he’s read Orwell)” rimless glasses and a half updo with a Bumpit, Palin comes across like she’s wearing a cheap Halloween getup McCain’s vice-presidential search party bought in a bag at Walgreen’s after midnight – four piece costume, pissed off white Suburban female, $19.99 plus tax.” Griftopia, Matt Taibbi, 2010.
Frank quotes two more snide comments about Palin in his book, but doesn’t seem to understand that political correctness (“Income inequality is the biggest challenge facing America today!”) and social snobbery towards someone who actually is from one of “America’s working families” go hand in hand. Could that have anything to do with the fact that the first person to endorse Trump was a former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska?
The bigger question is why do liberals think that they can treat average Americans with such contempt and not be noticed by their targets? The reason why Palin has been treated with such venomous hatred for eight years is that she dared to notice this disdain and fought back in her acceptance speech.
Liberal politicians and journalists created Donald Trump by enraging forty percent of the electorate with their scorn and derision.
And they may yet rue the day they let their true feelings out, just as Bill Clinton may live to regret urging Trump to run, thinking he would be the easiest Republican to beat. Be careful what you wish for!
In conclusion, my differences with Tom Frank are on emphasis and inference. (We see the same things!) His take in “Listen,Liberal” on the current political scene is brilliant, funny, and will be remembered long after most books of the era are forgotten. The fact that we come from opposite points on the political compass is irrelevant. His insight, knowledge, and passion make him an indispensable observer.
Buy this book or watch him on You-Tube. You won’t regret it!
Call me a Communist, Socialist but don’t call me a Liberal. I too want smaller government as throwing money at a problem solves nothing.
This is one of your finest pieces.
Time for the Libertarians to be included in the Presidential Debates. While I find the party a mixed bag of dreamers and nut cases, they are on the ballot in every state.
Democrats along with Republicans have done their worst to levy attack after attack against the common citizen over the last 60 years. For some dumb reason we keep electing the same lizard-creatures to office that continue to serve themselves and corporations at the gubment feeding trough.
Nice article.
when a racist/Nazi loving/hater and vile big mouth write nice article
I know it’s a piece of sh*t article.
But we know this guy. All talk…no action.
And completely wrong in everything he writes.
Go see glaze’s new video…a man and his dog….wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t have time to read your entire mess of b.s.
All I had to see was that this guy wrote the book ‘WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH
KANSAS”….and that you were part of that book.
The matter with Kansas has been the worst fiscal policies of any state
government based on the old worn out b.s. of trickle down economics.
AlL you have to do is look at the approval ratings of BROWNIE…
OR SCOTT WALKER OR CHRIS CHRISTIE….OR THE REST OF THE
REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS who are the most hated politicians on a
state level ever!!!!!!!!!!! They all ruined their states~! And they are hated
by the residents.
All you have to do is look at Bush. Lied us into a war that took 5000 kids
lives and 250,000 injured. Put a tax cut and 2 wars on credit cards…was asleep
on 9/11…was asleep on Katrina (Another Brownie)….was asleep as the
financial industry f*cked the American people (with over 200,000 people
supposedly watching the economy from the Department of Commerce to
the SEC. Huge debt after he inherited a surplus from Democrat Bill
Clinton….the worst 8 years in American histry under Bush.
The last 8 years the republicans were more concerned with making Obama
a one term president than doing what was right for the nation.
How many bills for jobs in the infrastructure did the repubs hold up.
Cheering for a housing collapse (like southy’s good buddy trump)….
doing almost nothing but obstruction on everything trying to move
the nation ahead.
Southy…they interviewed you about WHATS WRONG WITH KANSAS…
That’s appropriate since you and your buddies ruined our state. A tax cut
that many of your fellow republicans wish they could take back….a huge problem
with funding the schools. Some of the best schools in the nation are in
jeopardybecause of brownie.
What’s wrong with Kansas is we were guineas pigs for the kochs and your
support for an experiment that failed horribly while other states did well
without the b.s. you and your bros passed in the ks. legislature have crippled
this state and made us the joke of America.
Southy…your old time religion and politics is over!!!!!!
You will be a faded memory soon. The writing is on the wall….but its factual
and backed by stats.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH KANSAS made it all so clear. Why would the write
the book. Because the policies of brownie backed by people like you and
the rest of the rethugs have been a complete disaster…and according to the
paper 750 million dollars in the hole.
Go to KU or kstate where these cuts will hurt. Or the schools (not the private
schools your family paid for you to go to) that have taken huge hits.
YOU’RE GOING TO BE AS EXTINCT AS A DINOSAUR WITH THE REST OF
THE PEOPLE WHO RUINED NOT ONLY OUR NATION BUT OUR GREAT
STATE.
YOU ARE THE PROBLEM…NOT THE SOLUTION.
BYE BYE WHINEY AND SOUTHY AND HEARNE AND GLAZA AND
KEROWACKY AND WISLON. We tried your plan. We’ve been smothered
by lies (the repubs got so many liars and cheats and guys banging kids and
marriage cheaters and scum business people and big spenders and hate
and anger that whatever remains after November will be a shattered old
party on the verge of collapse with the few white voters left. FYI: In a major
poll by one of the better reliable polling companies….Hillary is even 44/44
in the vote with your buddy Trump in college educated whites. That connotates
into a huge landslide and the collapse in the only segment of America that
you and your buddies have used with scare tactics/wedge issues/and lies.
SAY WHAT YOU WILL SOUTHY WITH YOUR BORING ESSAYS…..IT’S OVER
….IT’S OVER BRO FOR YOUR BROTHERS AND THEIR ALLIES. THE TIMES
THEY ARE A CHANGIN’….AND AS YOUR FELLOW RETHUGS DIE OFF INTO THE
SUNSET there will be no one missing you.
So try to convince the minions and old seniors on kcc that the problem was
the dems. That’s a lie and one man’s book doesn’t make it real.
Get ready southy. The base of the republican party realized guys like
bush and cheney and newt and jerry falwell and billy grahm and scott walker
and chris Christie (with about a 20% approval rating in his state/Brownies
down to 25%/walker is in the tankand if you look at the states that have
mooched more money from the federal government than they paid in just
happened to be heavy red states.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH KANSAS AND AMERICA? The repubs who sold out
and looked after their personal financial growth at the expense of the American
public.
Give America 5 months to kill off the repub party (except in the low IQ
/low information states like Alabama/Mississippi/and the rest of americans
who keep voting for these republican clowns even though nothing has
ever helped them.
YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE KNOCKED OUT OF THE BOX. FOR YOUR LIFETIME!
WE’RE SEEING THE END OF THE REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT THAT
HAS SCREWED US ALL FOR WAY TOO LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The most important issue to your buddies is what bathrooms do people use.
When they could be fixing problems…they let them sit.
GIVE ME 5 MONTHS SOUTHY AND I’LL BE WRITING A BOOK NAMED
‘HOW SOUTHY AND HIS BUDDIES RUINED AMERICA!”
What bank doesyour family own? I would love to do my statistical analysis
on that bank to see what those banks did from 2000-2008. Might reveal
some interesting facts.
Ever watch shark tank. Every product idea that comes up the sharks (mostly
republican voters) say “lets move the manufacturing to china or offshore).
It wasn’t the democrats…its was the repubs who shut down and moved
the jobs overseas or bought the companies, bk’d the companies…sent the jobs
overseas or broke up the companies to put money in their own pocket…the
culprits: MITT ROMNEY AND HIS MONEY HUNGRY POS’S.
So be patient southy. Write comments about your take (which are wrong) and
lets see how the American voting public reacts in November.
RIP REPUBLICANS! South/winey/Wilson/glaza/kerowackjob and all the rest
of the free loading /self preserving/so called experts who led us down a
path based on their missed calculated numbers and stats.
8000 innocent americans killed under bush. huge deficits as he foungt
wars on credit cards…then when Obama wins they announce before his
programs will be stymied and they want him to be a one term president…
beating your buddy Romney.
WELL SMART MAN SOUTHY….the spell is cast….Harley was right…and afte
November we” bury” the party of Lincoln as they fight for the scraps of what’s
left. They should have listened to their own prognosis.
Yet your boy supports sanders….a socialist or as trump calls him a communist.
And as Hillary moves in (and who’s policies are about 93% in line with
sanders) we should be seeing your buddy endorse her. Because trump is all
over the place with a different right wing/money grubbing policy to enhance his
personal wealth/and has nothing in common with your author buddy and
socialist.
Here’s facts:
Trump campaign is broke.
He will not even be close to Romney in the white vote in November.
With splitting the white female vote with Hillary/getting just 17% of the Hispanic
vote….5% of the African American vote (Obama is in attack mode…he’s gonna
crush trump) with republicans of stature running away from trump/even house
speaker ryan/ with trumps campaign in serious financial problems (trump doesn’t
want to put any more in and is depending on rnc , who’s also near bk, to help
with gotv/data mining…I mean trump can’t even replace his communications
director for gods sake and bringing in NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporter Dick “I love to suck on womens filthy feet while my wife gets her hair done” MOrris…and its
a classic case of a dying campaign before it really ever started.
SO TO CONCLUDE: SOUTHY…I’m marking the days off the calendar. You will
never see another repub as president….the nation is turning left and getting
antsy for change…..and you’re the leader of the band for the repubs.
WHATS THE PROBLEM WITH KANSAS AND THE NATION? tell your
buddy the answer is real simple….the repubs who lied and shorted the American
economy and people.
KARMA IS A BIT*H…..We’re coming after you and the rest of the repubs
in November. I smell a landslide.
Can’t wait. Trump said you and your buddies lied! And he gotthe nomination.
THE TRAINS LEAVING THE STATION….WAVE GOODBYE. IT’S OVER
AND DONE.
Your party has done enough damage…killed enough innocent young kids…and
you laugh at the handicapped and disabled.
Watched fox news and megan Kelly and one person asked… “what about Donald
trumps comments about your blood from whatever”. The stupid blonde couldn’t
answer. She knows whats happening just like kirk and kock….like ryan and
graham….they see the truth and it isn’t pretty for the repubs.
Had a boxing friend and he had a motto: KTMFO…..it stood for knock the
mother f**ker out!
THATS JUST WHAT WE’RE GONNA DO COME NOVEMBER!
And I seriously don’t think trump makes it to November ((I wronte about this
earlier)…he’s a freaking mess.
And southy..don’t make the mistake whiny made. He probably spent 3k to
get his picture with Romney before the fiasco in 2012. Now it’s worth
aout $3. Don’t make the same mistake having your pic taken with
trumpster the dumpster and paying 3-4K for it when after election day in
November…IT WILL BE WORTHLESS.
Good luck….as they said in the famous movie…THE END IS NEAR!
And even all the money you repubs have can’t stop it!
Got my popcorn ready for the show…it’s going to be a real cakewalk.
Hillary gets 350 electoral points…probably more because even Utah is
looking to turn blue as is texas (a long shot) but with the hatred in texas
for trumpster the dumpster it will be the start of the end for republican
control of that state.
Nejoy the next 5 months. Because its all downhill for repubs from there.
And don’t forget the supreme court. Liberal judges will probably take over
there on a 6-3 count or maybe even a 7-2 count befor 2024.
As gleason and mcdonalds said “I’M LOVING IT!”…..
Where did I ever say I was a fan of Brownback or Trump? I go to considerable trouble to analyze and find praise for a book by someone who is a wonderful writer and public speaker,despite my political differences with him. All you want to talk about is how your team is going to win in November. Nothing this year corresponds to any other election I’ve seen since I started following politics back in the ’60s so I think bold predictions are risky. Why should that unleash a torrent of abuse for me and other people who blog on kcconfidential?
oh come on you big baby.
“a torrent of abuse”….hardly….
“bold predictions are risky”….not with Harley…I analyze and
go over the numbers available to determine the straight facts.
This election is no different than 2012…only the demographic
numbers have changed for the better for democrats…
and a nutcase racist is running for president and he’s
doing worse than Romney in almost every category.
You represent the establishment republican group…and
they’ve been kicked out by a raider.
The cat is out of the bag. Republicans in office took advantage
of these people and promised them the world but could
not deliver and
these voters became enraged because Obama beat them
on every issue. And with your hero kicking the bucket
they see the supreme court going left and there’s nothing
they can do.
Then America sees the right for what they are….racists/
white power greedy guys who wereonly there for themselves.
And trump comes in and fans their flames of hate and
lights the fire that gets 40% of the party to support him
and take the nomination.
Oh and your comments are hardly backed by fact.
Palin? A smart woman? Gotta be kidding me. She could
see Russia from her doorstep? Her comments were
seen as showing her to be acomplete idiot. For god’s
sake SNL used her to play a dummy and everyone laughed.
But I could discount every comment you made…
IT’S REAL SIMPLE.
IT’S SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND.
AND YOU CALL THE FACTS ABUSE?
America has changed. Its the income differences…its
the fact that the banks and corp thieves ran this nation
into the ground in 2008. A nd you and your republican
buddies now want less regulation of the wall street crooks.
Go watch the big short…or watch Michael Moore’s movies…
or “who do we invade now”.
It’s the numbers southy and while your bros on the
conservative side were thwarting everything to get this
nation back you fell asleep and around comes trump and
he’s now LEADER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
But don’t worry…he only lasts til November but you’ll have
no place to return to.
Conservative republicans will be like nomads in the desert
looking for water or a place to hunker down.
But it’s gone.
When you and your boys claim they can’t lose the
supreme court they worry…..because then everything
they promised but never delivered to their followers
will go up in smoke.
It’s the numbers. I didn’t make them up….their
statistical numbers. IT’S THE NUMBERS BOYS!
Is that abusing conservatives or did they fail to listen
to the doctors when they told them to outreach to
miniority voters or else.
Wasn’t me boss.
I’m the messenger of the facts. And they speak for
themselves.
Hillary is even with trump in white college graduate whick
Romney won in 2012(in a huge loss)by 16-20%….now they’re
even between hill and trump. Is that abuse? Or is that
a fact that you can verify.
Romney got 27% of Hispanics in 2012. Trumps now at
less than 17%. Is that abuse. No it’s a fact.
Dumpster needs over 40% of Hispanic vote and after eating
a taco bell salad he says “I great with Hispanics…I love them”.
That’s not my quote. He’s getting killed by Hispanics
voters. Is that abuse? or is it because he called them
murderers and wants to round them up (now imagine
boots breaking down a door and taking the moms from the
kids right out of the house into a waiting van to cart her
back to mexico after she’s been here for 9 years).
Nukes for japan and Saudis and everyone else who wants
one…yeah for trump.
Treating women like PIGS….YEAH FOR TRUMP.
I know its abusive to use a mans own words against
him.
Here’s more abuse. The world is changing.
Your world is so much different than mine and almost
everyone in this nation.
But I’m sure the accountants and finance people said at
some time to you “go offshore”. If they didn’t then
you didn’t follow Arthur at home depot or laurie and
kroenke at wal mart.
So if you’re so weak you can’t listen or even see the truth
from a small businessman who writes so fast that the
words come out so quickly its hard to use the right
spelling and grammar then you overpaid for that
high dollar education.
You’ve not been here long. You missed Harleys incredible
track record on these subjects.
I’ve taken more written flack than anyoneon this
and other sites.
But a funny thing happens….I am right…all the time.
And I prove it with stats.
Sorry…didn’t mean to ruin your day with my
comments. But sofar no ones proven me wrong.
It’s your game now.
How can someone think you’re anything but a right wing
(far right winger) republican when the entire article you
write tries to knock off liberals? Seriously. My grandma
after reading this stuff you wrote would even understand.
YOUR POLICIES/YOUR POLITICS are old hat. Dinosaurs
in todays world.
Harley once considered himself the greatest. But I passed
that up when the real GREAT ONE DIED.
What happened to Kansas? The same thing that happended
when we gave bush the keys to the white house.
An utter mess that someone will have to come and clean
up.
Bush lied to us about Iraq. Right under his nose the
money bag men took this nation to the precipice.
It was greed my man. Simple self fulfilling greed.
And In 8years they’ve still done what got us in trouble.
YOu can see it now.
Sorry I abused you. But it’s very simple to analyze the
numbers and predict the future.
But you better hurry. Times a ticking. And we’re going
to fix this thing.
Iwill be doing further papers on whether the repubs lose the
house and senate.
But be sure of one thing. We’re going to change the
supreme court for 50 years. And long after you and I
are gone we’l l get this nation back to what the
founding fathers wanted.
good luck southy.
Your friend:
Harley
My god, man!
What hath God wrought?
I’ve gotta tell ya, I’m pretty easily entertained, but less is more H Man. You’re not getting paid here by the word (you’re not getting paid at all but you get my point).
Keep a little of it in your pants and leave something to the readers imagination. I can get a little wordy myself at times, but c’mon!
Sorry…
Just a bit of battle fatigue from trying to force myself to read about a hundred of your endlessly long screeds today!
Why would you read anything that idiot says, or bother to respond? The biggest problem with Harley’s crap is missing something rational someone else says while you’re scrolling by his drivel. What a douchebag.
John the loser alteshmuk:
another right wing loser old man with no where
to go.
Your right wing nut job existence is coming to
an end.
The rethugs are about to collapse and you’re
just pissed cause Harley predicted it….and got
it right again.
You read my comments and see the facts.
Everything comes to fruition but an old
washed up man like you can’t take it because
you’re losing everywhere and Harley is
the champ!
Next time…don’t cry when you find out
you and your conservative friends have lost
everything.
And remember…no one has contested anything
I’ve written.
I’m the best at analysis and stats about what’s
happening in the world.
Took down glaza…southy…whiney…wislon…
hearne….chuckles the clown.
Harley knows the truth and if you read
my other national blogs you’ll see Harley
is getting nationwide attention for his
predictions.
So old man…I know what I write hurts
your right wing loser thinking….but
as always HARLEY IS RIGHT…HARLEY
REIGNS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.
tRY proving me wrong nutjob.
You have nothing but a future filled with
the fact that Hillary and the dems are
taking over after you and your crowd failed
to deliver to your low iq/low information
idiotic group of sheep.
Bring it on old man John
Harley will prove you wrong…and that’s
what makes all you old rocking chair
seniors so pissed.
See ya in November loser!
I’ll give $10,000 to anyone , except Harley the worst, that read that whole post!
I’ll give you a break on the $10,000 check. Make it out to Kansas Policy Institute, which is a 501(c)3, and send it to me at 12980 Metcalf, Suite 430, Overland Park, KS 66213.
After reading Dwight’s entire and excellent piece, I might have to go buy Frank’s book.
By ‘break’ I meant a tax break.
who’s backing this so called “institute”.
let me guess.
seems you’re a Koch sponsored outfit.
you’re an expert in education k-12…
well instead of wasting time on kcc…go get brownie’s
ship in order and get the schools straightened out.
A former tv gm too. will be by sometime but I can
hardly qualify you as an expert in stats or analysis.
Good luck.
Tell the Koch boys their days are numbered in the
world of politics!
I knew southy was tied in someway to this deal!!!!!!!
Can’t help but notice you are long on rhetoric and devoid of facts.
I was offering for anyone who read harleys comment
No effing way I am going to attempt to read his garbage posts.
Oh. That isn’t worth $10k.
Really good read, DW.
I always chuckle when someone tries to extol the virtues of of one party or the other. My personal opinion is that there isn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between the two when it comes to what they say they are going to do for “middle-class” Americans. The middle class doesn’t control jack-squat when it comes to either party’s agenda. Money does. Always has, always will.
Just as an aside, I never put my kids through college and encouraged them to get a degree because of the future economic impact on their lives. I did it because I think education can enrich one’s life in other ways besides financially. It can open up a world of ideas and create lifetime contacts for all walks of life. JMO. I didn’t have that opportunity when I was their age and I wanted to make sure they did. I was never under any illusion that it guaranteed them any sort of future success.
the word;
the republican party is in disarray. The party has been taken over by trumps
clan.
And they are taking down republican establishment pols down.
Rubio (if he runs) will probably lose his race for reelection.
Many establishment repubs are moving far far away from trump becausev they
too are in serious danger of losing in November.
The old white conservatives should form another party since they will have no
place left in the current party…here’s what they should do.
Have cpr medics at every meeting. the establishment is old and frail. Want to
keep them breathing so they can carry on the SENIOR MINORITY
Serve Flomax and ensure at every meeting and party.
Offer pre need services (pre death plans) thru Newsmax and other establishment
media as a “service” to those who weren’t shut out by trumps goosesteppers.
Will have more!
And BWH….you should be glad Obama took over. Your kids faced a huge
unemployment rate under rethugs/bush….now its below 5% and if they have
skills they will find a job very quickly. And if they took out student loans
rest assured the dems will continue to try to help them with those loans
and redcue the financial hardship those loans can correct.
DWS: Proves my point. Pelosi and Reid are your best and brightest.
My god, man, can’t you keep your lips from flapping???? No one gives a flying f*** what you think.
Lest anyone misconstrue: this comment was meant for the poster above Cowboy.
Fantastic article! I used to think that Democrats represented the people, while the Republicans represented big corporations. I was wrong. Contrary to public belief, my mother was a Missouri Democrat, and there are those that believe what their parents believe, without question. My mother is no longer a Democrat. She is an independent. I have seen how the sausage is made, from both sides, and I decry the fact that we no longer have our best and brightest serving us. If McConnell, Ryan, Pelosi, and Reid are our best and brightest, we might as well give up now. They are serving themselves, and it leaves people like me frustrated. I understand how it is complicated. I’m one of those who made it complicated, adding amendments to kill bills, and giving legislators the choice to kill an unpopular position at the cost of a very popular one. It is a case of priorities, and neither Republicans nor Democrats seem to have my priorities at heart, even though they claim to.
CFP, like him or hate him……..I think he makes some great points. He hits on a lot of what you are saying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/opinion/dump-the-gop-for-a-grand-new-party.html?&_r=0
The only problem with this is I got a notice from my local voting board that I cannot vote in the next primary because I am unaffiliated and I need to sign up with the lesser of the two evils party. Douche bag or turd sandwich? Decisions, decisions…
Can’t agree, dude. Perhaps it is the barbarian in me but clubs should be run by members. And the parties are clubs not a Constitutionally-mandated thing.
Probably why so many Bernie supporters are butt-heart from playing a full-contact game without knowing the rules. Which differ from state to state. Sometimes place to place in a county.
The soup from both sides is unpalatable from both sides.
Cowboy, you make a great point. Lobbyists suck. Not mine of course. But once the greed of politicians was tempered (to a degree) by civic duty.
Now we demand our “leaders” must be without sin. So we the highest honor both expected candidates can claim is I have never been convicted of a crime and sent to prison.
sanders supporters not hurt. Sanders and Hillary
agree 93% of the time orphan.
Polls show that almost 86% of sanders supporters
will vote for Hillary.
where you got this b.s. that sanders supporters
are going to vote for trump (after Hillary/bill/Elizabeth/
Herrera/biden/Obama and all the republicans
who have no home now that trumpster the dumpster
kicked them to the curb) is absurd.
We’re stoked/ready/and gonna beatdown those
who cheated us.
Get ready boys. AS MY BOYS SAID ‘THERES GONNA
BE A PARTY TONIGHT!”
and again….HARLEY WAS SPOT ON RIGHT AGAIN!
With Trumps mistakes, and continued lack of content to his plans…being painted more and more a racist, though I don’t think he is…Hillary is starting to look good again. Her numbers are going up and Trump has little chance of wooing the Latino or Black voter now. His only hope there is many of them just don’t vote.
Also looking like Bernie will be given a spot on the Clinton team after the election soooo….not good for Donald…
Must have been a hard night for the glaza!
Taking on those hos in the oil wrestling fights…bringing one home
to put the pork to her….having junior help you like off the nasty oil
from between the “knockouts” legs….having jr. breath on her
(glaze…you do know they sell breath mints for dogs at petco)
sending the female wrestler back to her motel…then you and jr. getting to watch some late nite porn on the DOGGYSTYLE NETWORK
after you sent LULU on her way. Whuuuu…what a tough nite.
Then you wake up and write this comment.
Changing your mind barely a week after you wrote 4 comments on
trump winning the presidency.
I suggest you send jr. to the trump campaign headquarters and have
junior like Ivanka trumps cho cho. That way it might wake her up because
she looked tired standing behind the dumpster.
Then have jr. start licking Melania trumps face (until she can’t stand
jr.s breath) and jr. gets her botox all over his face and he balloons into
a great dane!
Glaza…you’re something else. But we all expected
youd wait maybe 10 days before renigging on your last prediction before
you changed your mind for the thousandth time.
Glaza…gotta go…but I have so much fun with you…and now with your
new selling video…that you’ve given me enough material to last til
2017.
Tell jr. hello…and try stopping at the pet smart down the street
and getting some doggy mints. Might keep the girls at your place
a little longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha!
That was a massive amount of content there, Dwight. Knowing how Hearne stresses over editing with at least a few from his cadre of contributors, it makes me wonder what the first draft looked like?
It’s clear that you wrestled over the question “Is the enemy of my enemy, my friend?” The fact that a conservative Republican could find common ground with a Democratic Socialist over their shared disdain of the Democratic Establishment made this an interesting read.
Knowing full well that this will incur the wrath of Harley, I will offer this anyway.
Good Effort.
in other words…according to his buddies the republicans…southy
could be considered a communist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
free 2 x 4’s for all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
no wrath…just shows how shallow and messed up republicans are
now.
they’re base is dying off. Their base supporters of educated whites
is being torn apart! And that will spell the end of the republican party.
and now the southys of the world are trying to take down the
democratic establishment because his buddies underv bush put our
entire social and economic well being of the nation is grave danger
and thenwith Obama they stopped everything that could have
helped the economy come back quicker and stronger.
So don’t believe these now orphaned idiots….they’ve got nowhere
to go.
If trump didn’t need the rnc’s cash and their help he’d kicked them
all out of the party. But he’s got no fundraising or cash and the
rnc can’t raise dimes. Next we’ll see southy and other republicans
on the corners with signs reading ‘WILL VOTE FOR QUARTERS”.
sTOMPER…one thing about you. These goniffs (Hebrew for lying
thieves) got away with everything and you want to give them the
benefit of the doubt when they used every trick to keep the economy
from growing/more jobs/stronger econmy and you roll over for these
mooches and pretend they didn’t attempt to ruin the nation just to spite
the black man in the oval office.
THEY LIED AND CHEATED. THEY HAD SEX WITH YOUNG KIDS!
Southys speaker of the house…..good religious man (not!)
It’s time to get rid of them all….get the country back on track….send
these establishment repubs who lied to their own people out on the street…
blow out the trump supporters and the racist vile speech once and for
all…and take over the nation and get this nation on track.
Why place nice with your enemies. They lied and cheated their
own supporters for decades. Squash them…bury them….then
have them RIP in the dustbowl of history.
We’ve seen their way of doing business and its not worked.
Get rid of them. No compromise with them.
Put the stake to their hearts and move on.
But once we take the supreme court for the next quarter century
we’ll put all these crooks in their place.
They wanted citizens united….well we’ll stick it up their a$$
and run them down to mexico as undocumented illegal aliens!!!
TRAVIS BICKLE: “You talkin to me?”
HONEY BOO BOO: “Yes, dumbazz, I am talking to you. Get up, the baby is crying.”
TRAVIS BICKLE: “You talkin to me?”
HONEY BOO BOO: “Jesus, I will get up. Little Harley/JoJo is crying again. I think you should have removed the lead paint from his nursery BEFORE he was born.”
TRAVIS BICKLE: “You talkin to me?”
HONEY BOO BOO: “Maybe, what were we talking about?”
figures you’d be well versed in honey boo boo.
It’s your favorite program chuckles the sad ditch digger.
I guess after digging ditches all day watching that
intellectualshow would be entertaining.
But your lady wants you to take a shower first.
you smell like dirty feet.
chuck, here’s you format. Taken from a Philadelphia sports writer reporting on Andy Reid press conferences.
WHAT HARLEY SAID This part is obvious is obtuse.
WHAT HARLEY MEANT
Here’s how the race looks in November. Adjust candidate names to fit your preference. Personally I see Hillary as the Lincoln. You know, the corporate product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3pqabvppic
I like the really bad Nixon impression.
🙂
“Goniff” is a Yiddish word,not Hebrew. You are an embarrassment to your faith,as well as your political party.
Hey Glaze, is anything that anybody says on here really out of line anymore now that you’ve posted everywhere about your 3-ways between you, your dog and some random slut. I know, I know, she wasn’t a slut, she was a bimbo. Hey, does your dog give you the rimjob when the bimbo’s not around? Apparently he has a nice licker
You stupid idiot, you’re not even on the right post.
And so witty and sophisticated too!)
SOUTHY! GLAZA! HEARNE! CHUCKLES SAD CLOWN! GUY WHO FANTASIZES! KEROWACKJOB!
JIM! ORPHAN OF THE ROADKILL!
read this and weep boys! Harley is 1000% RIGHT
AGAIN!!!! FROM LAWRENCE JOURNAL! HEARNES
HOMETOWN PAPER AND THE BASTION OF
RIGHT WINGERS AND CHICKENHAWK FOOTBALL
FANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS JUST OUT!
But when given a choice between the two parties’ presumptive nominees, a plurality (43-36 percent) said they prefer Democrat Hillary Clinton to Republican Donald Trump, while 21 percent are currently undecided.
HILLARY KICKING BUTT IN KANSAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AS I SAID BEFORE…..HARLEY IS RIGHT AGAIN AND
AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN
NO matter what you fools say….HARLEY REIGNS!
Any post is the right post. FU Wally
Frank is an elitist. I liked What’s the Matter With Kansas because Tom had a better grasp of who we were as conservatives than the morons in the Kansas press corps, but I just find it interesting that about the only conservative he’ll talk to is a fellow Mission Hills denizen. I’ve invited him up to WYCO to sample all of our wonderful eateries but he’s JOCO through and through, just disappointed because the preppies didn’t let him join in the fun.
We are all voting for Hillary Harley!!
🙂
OPEN BORDERS BABY!!
http://rightwingnews.com/column-2/when-the-third-world-attacks/
We are “Harley’s Heroes”!