#m

Governing was always difficult for conservatives, but as they return to the opposition, they are rediscovering their skill at blame evasion. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#blame #conservatives #difficult #evasion #governing

Above all else stands the burning question of bipartisanship. Whatever else the politicians might say they're about, our news analysts know that this is the true object of the nation's desire, the topic to which those slippery presidential spokesmen need always to be dragged back. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#above #always #back #bipartisanship #burning

Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats' - it was second-wave, it was divisive - but 2008 made retro politics cool again. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#again #always #class #cool #democrats

Allowing a private rather than a public entity to take over your toll road merely means that your tolls will have to be that much higher to cover their more expensive debt. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#cover #debt #entity #expensive #higher

American conservatism depends on its continued dominance and even for its very existence on people never making connections about the world, connections that until recent were treated as obvious or self-evident everywhere on the planet. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#american #connections #conservatism #continued #depends

As you may recall, Truman was extremely unpopular when he finally left Washington in 1953, thanks largely to the Korean War. Today, however, he is thought to have been a solidly good president, a 'Near Great' even, in the terminology of those surveys of historians they do every now and then. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#even #every #extremely #finally #good

Back in the days when the market was a kind of secular god and all the world thrilled to behold the amazing powers of private capital, the idea of privatizing highways and airports and other bits of our transportation infrastructure made a certain kind of sense. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#back #behold #bits #capital #certain

Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles; elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#concerns #debate #democrats #elected #fundamental

Every city is either vibrant these days or is working on a plan to attain vibrancy soon. The reason is simple: a city isn't successful - isn't even a city, really - unless it can lay claim to being 'vibrant.' ↗

— Thomas Frank

#being #city #claim #days #either

For-profit higher education is today a booming industry, feeding on the student loans handed out to the desperate. ↗

— Thomas Frank

#desperate #education #feeding #handed #higher