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Title details for Let Them Eat Tweets by Jacob S. Hacker - Available

Let Them Eat Tweets

How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

by Jacob S. Hacker
Paul Pierson
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
Does the GOP represent "forgotten" Americans? Or does it represent the superrich? In Let Them Eat Tweets, bestselling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature, almost always side with the rich. But when faced with popular resistance, they usually make concessions, allowing some policies that benefit the working and middle classes. After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society? Today's Republicans have shown the way, doubling down on a truly radical, elite-benefiting economic agenda while at the same time making increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to their almost entirely white base. Telling a forty-year story, Hacker and Pierson demonstrate that since the early 1980s, when inequality started spiking, extreme tax cutting, union busting, and deregulation have gone hand in hand with extreme race-baiting, outrage stoking, and disinformation. As Hacker and Pierson argue, Trump isn't a break with the GOP's recent past. On the contrary, he embodies its tightening embrace of plutocracy and right-wing extremism.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 7, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781684579259
      • File size: 246707 KB
      • Duration: 08:33:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 2, 2020
      Political scientists Hacker and Pierson (American Amnesia) analyze the modern Republican Party’s shift toward “plutocratic populism” in this barbed and cogent account. Contending that all conservative parties within democracies face the same dilemma of how to protect the interests of the “economic elite” while winning electoral support from the masses, Hacker and Pierson document Richard Nixon’s efforts to win over white, working-class voters; Newt Gingrich’s partisan warfare during the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations; the rise of the Koch brothers’ libertarian agenda ; and Donald Trump’s embrace of the “most radical” Republican priorities. They examine the role of evangelical Christians, the NRA, and the right-wing media in Republican efforts to solve the “Conservative Dilemma” despite the unpopularity of their legislative pursuits (repeal of the Affordable Care Act, tax cuts for the wealthy), and note that gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID laws, the Electoral College, and malapportionment in the U.S. Senate help to ensure that conservative voters have an outsized voice. Though much of this will be familiar to politically minded readers, Hacker and Pierson pull disparate pieces into a lucid narrative that goes a long way toward explaining the current iteration of the Republican Party. Liberals will be equal parts enraged and edified by this deeply sourced polemic. Agent: Sydelle Kramer, the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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