#Thomas Frank

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When parties fail, movements step up

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Does anyone like the American two party system? The parties are opaque, private organizations, weak institutions that are prone to capture and corruption, and gerrymandering's "safe seats" means that the real election often takes place in the party's smoke-filled rooms, when a sure-thing candidate is selected:

https://doctorow.medium.com/weak-institutions-a26a20927b27

But there doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. For one thing, the two parties are in charge of any reform, and they're in no hurry to put themselves out of business. It's effectively impossible for a third party to gain any serious power in the USA, and that's by design. After the leftist Populists party came within a spitting distance of power in the 1890s, the Dems and Repubs got together and cooked the system, banning fusion voting and erecting other structural barriers.

The Nader and Perot campaigns were doomed from the outset, in other words. Either candidate could have been far more popular than the D and R on the ballot, and they still would have lost. It's how the deck is stacked, and to unstack it, reformers would need to take charge of at least one – and probably both – of the parties.

But that's not cause for surrender – it's a call to action. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Thomas Frank (Listen, Liberal) sets out another locus of power, one with the potential to deliver control over the party to its base: social movements:

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/ordinary-people-by-the-millions

It's been done before. The parties are routinely transformed by power-shifts within their internal coalitions: since 1970, corporate Dems have consistently pushed the party to the right, making it the power of white-collar professionals and relying on working people showing up and marking their ballots with a D because they have "nowhere else to go."

Bill Clinton was the most successful of these corporate raiders, delivering the parts of the Reagan Revolution that Reagan himself could never have managed: dismantling tariffs and bank regulations, passing the crime bill and welfare "reform." He came within a whisper of (partially) privatizing Social Security.

This set in motion the forces that made Trumpism possible: when Dems told deindustrialized workers to "learn to code" and blamed them for the destruction of their communities, it opened a space for Make America Great Again, the (empty) workerist rhetoric of the GOP. The Dems' plan of putting "really smart people" in charge and letting them run things was a (predictable) disaster. "Really smart" isn't the same as "infallible" and really smart people can be spooked or bulled into doing the wrong thing – like Obama "foaming the runways" for the banks with the houses of mortgage holders, and leaving the bankers responsible for the Great Financial Crisis unscathed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

"Really smart people" can't get us out of this mess. Instead, we need the kind of muscular political action – the "whirlwind" – that characterized FDR's New Deal: "complete reformation of the banking industry.. just about every other industry as well. Regulation. Social Security. Public works. Antitrust. Soil conservation."

FDR got there by alienating his former classmates and refusing the go-slow entreaties of his cronies. He got there because there was a mass social movement that made him do it ("I want to do it, now make me do it"):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/i-agree-with-you-i-want-to-do-it-now-make-me-do-it/

Every time in US history where one of the political party duopoly listened to its base, it was because of a mass social movement: the farmers' movement (1890s), labor (1930s), civil rights and antiwar (1960s). As Frank says:

Social movements succeed. They build and they change the intellectual climate and then, when the crisis comes, they make possible things like agrarian reform or the New Deal or the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s.

Today, we see the seeds of those social movements: the new union movement. Black Lives Matter. Neobrandeisians with their "hipster antitrust." These are the movements that are creating "ideas lying around": ideas that, in time of crisis, can move from the fringe to the center in an eyeblink:

https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae

They are setting in motion another transformation of the Democratic Party, from its top-down, "really smart people" model to a bottom-up, people-powered one, kept in check by movements, not party bosses. As Frank says, "They require the mass participation of ordinary people. Without that, I am afraid that nothing is possible."

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/17/popular-front-of-judea/#speaking-frankly

[laisy]

[schmel-schmel]

Unexpected Frankteta thoughts🫢

[henry-tasman]

After Brentford defeat against Wolverhampton

[elmaestrostan]

Result aside (and I mean it’s a point, not nothing, and if I’m going to be sharing points with anyone in this league it’s Thomas Frank), today was a fantastic day. I’ve not made it to a match since Deano was in charge (mainly due to looking after my elderly mum), so it was amazing to be back there again (and all being well will be a regular occurrence now).

Thoughts on the match? Unai’s ripe peach of a bum, god bless you spring sunshine. Moreno’s backside is also a work of art (Duran playfully kicked him there when they were warming up, he’s clearly jealous). Diego’s thighs should come with a warning. Thomas Frank is a beauty and was sweet with some kids who called him over for a handshake as he came out for the 2nd half.

Oh the match? Good goal, good goal, bad goal, bad goal, bad goal, good goal. Glad I got to see our traditional nod off & concede after 50 mins in the flesh.

[protect-daniel-james]

Awwwww 🥹

[total-toral]

Hehe thank you so much no context Thomas Frank account

[ballsbalb]

me too, buddy. me too.

[jessethegoat]

the way Thomas gushing about Brad Pitt is too funny 😂

just love how enthusiastic and unashamed he is professing his love for the actor (albeit to a super fine creature indeed)

[moomin279]

hatewatch successful but how the flying fuck did we lose to this utd team

[millythegoat]

Kloppo and Thomas hugs

[laisy]

Anyway! To the next Thomas Frank modeling gig!

[schmel-schmel]

Vampire managers

(thanks @yellow-action and @arthurhurtland for developing the idea✨)

[henry-tasman]

[elmaestrostan]

Very Important Unai & Thomas Content (my iPhone camera turned into a potato as per usual).

The video clip was half accidental: was trying to film Unai emerging from the tunnel after halftime, but some guy needed to get past; ended up that I was still filming and caught Unai’s reaction to Morgan’s first (championship player hehe) goal 🥹

@laisy Thomas! I also spotted him walking from the Brentford bus, didn’t get time to take my phone out but he was very smiley 🥰

[protect-daniel-james]