Thomas Frank got much well-deserved attention for his book, "What's Wrong with Kansas?," an analysis of why people in the Heartland frequently vote against their own economic interest when they vote Republican. Now an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal, here's Frank's simple, stark advice for Barack Obama:
"If he is to prevail in November, Mr. Obama cannot allow the right to profit from the discontent stirred up by their own misbehavior. Talking about "hope" is very nice when you're leading by 20 points, but what the Democrat has to do, now that John McCain has evened up the score, is take control of public outrage. He should not recoil from the bitterness that's out there. He should speak to it.
At the very least Mr. Obama must begin to offer an explanation for why things have gone so very wrong over the past seven years. He should tell us how, say, the failures of Iraq reconstruction were made inevitable by the conservative philosophy that "government should be market-based," as Mr. Bush once put it...
That's why this election must be a referendum on Republican rule and the destructive doctrines behind it. It is a contest to put the blame where it belongs."
Sounds about right to me. The current leaders of the national Republican Party---including the Congressional leadership---has forfeited their right to power. Unfortunately, only a second big kick in the pants from the electorate will bring us "Change we can believe in" on that side of the aisle.
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