[lbo-talk] My thoughts on Tom Frank's article in Harper's

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Apr 2 08:54:00 PST 2004


Kerry Keane wrote:


>The gun thing in 'red states' is about -lifestyle-.

It's about manliness too. John Lacny is right to emphasize race, but god and sex matter a lot too.

I don't know my populist history well enough, but I suspect that Tom Frank is idealizing a bit. Lots of American populists have resented the "parasites" below as well as the parasites above - both the rich and poor threaten the virtuous producer. There's more continuity between classic populism and today's right-wing kind than a lot of people would like to admit.

Doug



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