A review by christianholub
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People by Thomas Frank

4.0

Donald Trump's election was a major wake-up call for me, as I know it was for many other people. Although the campaign had been a shitshow for more than two straight years by that point, it wasn't until Nov. 8 that the veil was totally ripped away and I truly realized what a fucked-up hellscape America had become. That's a strange realization to have coming off eight years of a liberal president, and one I used to admire greatly at that. Luckily, this book does a thorough job of explaining the decades of failure and betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to this point - from George McGovern exiling labor unions from the party just a few years after they pulled off a massive voter-registration drive for the Democrats, to Bill Clinton eradicating the welfare legacy of FDR in a way not even Republicans could. Frank lays them all out with excellent reporting, in-depth knowledge of his subjects, and an ear to the voices of America's forgotten workers and poor people. In the Trump era, I find myself listening to a lot of rowdy podcasts, but this book consistently made me angrier than any of them with barely a swear word to be found. I highly recommend checking it out if you're wondering how we got to this dystopian hell world.