麻豆影院

Author鈥檚 CU 麻豆影院 appearance first of two events highlighting diverse perspectives from media professionals and public intellectuals

The Democratic Party, which presents itself as a vanguard of working people, has become an elite meritocracy that has lost touch with its roots, argues Thomas Frank, a journalist and author of the bestselling book What鈥檚 the Matter with Kansas?

Frank will give a talk titled 鈥淲hat Ever Happened to the Party of the People?鈥� on Monday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. in on the 麻豆影院 campus.

His appearance is the first of hosted by CU this fall that aim to highlight diverse perspectives from media professionals and public intellectuals. The second is an appearance by author, columnist, talk-radio host and Fox News contributor Meghan McCain, who will speak at a town hall on Monday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Math 100.

In Frank鈥檚 view, well-educated Democratic leaders have lost touch with working-class people and tend to be unduly sympathetic to comparably learned elites.

鈥淵ou talk to a certain kind of Democrat about economic problems that we鈥檙e having in the country, which are in high relief now, and the conversation automatically for them gravitates to education,鈥� Frank said in a recent interview.

鈥淓verything for them is an education problem.鈥�

The lives of such Democrats are 鈥渄efined by education, so they naturally think that education will play a similar role for everybody,鈥� Frank continued.

But that view tends to shift the topic鈥檚 focus back onto the individual. 鈥淧eople are falling behind because they didn鈥檛 study the right subject, or they didn鈥檛 go to college, or their field is obsolete,鈥� Frank argued.

Such Democrats 鈥渉ave real trouble talking about grand, sweeping economic changes, and this makes it easy.鈥�

To buttress his view that the Democratic party has become fixated on well-credentialed elites, Frank compares the Obama administration鈥檚 cabinet with that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The Obama administration did not 鈥済et tough with Wall Street鈥� after the 2008 crash and 鈥渄ropped the ball鈥� in several ways, Frank said. President Obama鈥檚 cabinet and inner circle of advisers has been packed with Ivy Leaguers and Rhodes Scholars and included 鈥渟ome of the best-credentialed people who鈥檝e ever been in government, taken as a whole.鈥�

鈥淵et they delivered these shabby results,鈥� Frank said, noting a similar phenomenon in the LBJ administration, which was chronicled in the David Halberstam鈥檚 landmark book The Best and the Brightest.

Halberstam highlighted the fact that President鈥檚 Johnson鈥檚 defense advisers were 鈥渢he most brilliant people around,鈥� many from Harvard. 鈥淎nd they dreamed up the Vietnam War, this incredible catastrophe,鈥� Frank said.

The Obama and Johnson administration examples might prompt one to wonder if 鈥渢here鈥檚 something wrong with government by expert,鈥� Frank said, before quickly adding, 鈥淏ut that can鈥檛 be right.鈥�

The golden age of 鈥済overnment by expert,鈥� by contrast, was FDR鈥檚 New Deal. But President Roosevelt鈥檚 advisers had broad expertise without the same 鈥渃oncentrated collection of credentials鈥� seen today.

What constituted expertise 鈥渨asn鈥檛 always answered by the word 鈥楬arvard,鈥欌�� Frank said. While Roosevelt himself was a Harvard man, he enlisted the help of people from a broad range of experience.

For instance, Roosevelt appointed Robert Jackson, former chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, as solicitor general and attorney general. But Jackson did not have a degree in law.

The Roosevelt administration 鈥済ot tough鈥� with the bankers after the crash, Frank said, adding that the Obama administration declined to do so. 鈥淥ne thing we know about the meritocracy is that the people on top respect one another.鈥�

So when the government鈥檚 top watchdogs view the titans of the financial sector 鈥渢hey see peers. They see people they are automatically sympathetic with, people whose concerns they understand. They are willing not just to forgive these people but to give them the benefit of the doubt in every imaginable way.鈥�

That mindset makes it difficult for the government elite to grasp that fraud on a massive scale was perpetrated at the top of the financial sector,听Frank said, suggesting that the government elite viewed the financial meltdown this way: 鈥淚f there was an epidemic of fraud, it was committed by people at the bottom, people who are signing the loan documents, people who are borrowing money to buy houses.鈥�

Frank鈥檚 articles have appeared in the Financial Times, Harper鈥檚 Magazine, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Salon, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The Nation听补苍诲 Wall Street Journal.

He is the author of eight books, including the aforementioned New York Times bestseller What鈥檚 the Matter with Kansas? His most recent book鈥�Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?鈥�was published in March.

Frank鈥檚 appearance is sponsored by the CU 麻豆影院 , the 听补苍诲 .