How Do They Do It? 2
How have the extreme right-wing Republicans, who are so out of the mainstream of American politics on so many issues, managed to consolidate and maintain power so effectively? And how have their tactics changed the landscape of American politics?
The guests on today’s Fresh Air attempt to answer that question. Here’s the description of the show from the website. Click the link to read more and listen to the show (which also includes an interview with Trent Lott):
In the book, Hacker and Pierson examine the tactics of far-right Republicans — and how they’ve changed the system for years to come. They split their subject matter into two topics: “Abandoning the Middle” and “Broken Checks and Balances.”
Hacker is an associate professor of political science at Yale University. Pierson is a professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley.
Well worth a listen.
December 1, 2005 at 11:22 pm
I heard portions of that interview, and honestly, what I heard was underwhelming. The authors pointed out Republican use of political tactics that were as old as democracy itself, and I remember thinking, “they think this is new?” A few moments later Terry Gross basically read my mind and asked, “OK, but don’t the Democrats do the same thing?” and their answer was something along the lines of “uh, ok, yeah, but the Republicans do it more and besides, we think they have an extreme agenda.” Not a lot of discovery there.
December 2, 2005 at 7:20 pm
I agree that it was not ground-breaking history, but it’s useful sometimes to see everything pulled together, especially to see how the voices of Republican moderates (that is, Republicans in the Republican tradition of Rockefeller, Dirksen, and even Taft) got stilled for so long.