Thomas Frank "Wrecking Crew" interview on CNN.com

[alfredo]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/10/06/thomas.frank/index.html

Frank: seem to be so much more eyes-on-the-prize than Democrats are. the Bush guys were doing almost anything to win, and the Kerry people were like, "Oh come on now, play fair."

And that's very interesting. And the reason I say that's interesting is because for a lot of , there's no downside to it to them if they lose -- I mean, there is for John Kerry, he doesn't get to be president -- but it's not like he is the representative of a movement whose members will suffer if he doesn't win. ...

But the Republicans have exactly the opposite attitude. contest is of absolute paramount importance: to take the state, capture the state, which they claim to hate so much and be against.

CNN: Is this era coming to an end? Even if Obama gets elected, what you describe is a really entrenched culture.

Frank: Conservatism is an industry which generates profits on its own. One of the guys I quote in the book describes himself as part of the conservative movement industry. He's right. So how do you take it on? A big part of their industry is playing you guys. ... There are whole groups in Washington aimed at destroying liberal movements, and there's a whole branch of it aimed at you guys -- just at playing your industry, and CNN in particular. And in my opinion, they've done that with great effectiveness.

We must ask often and loudly: If the Republicans hate our government so much, why do they want to control it?

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

1. That's a point I've been trying to make, here and elsewhere,

What we're up against is not so much a party but an ideology, a mindset. Only a different mindset will give us the systemic changes that we need to pull us out of the hole we've fallen into. Obama understands at least some of that, with the trickle-up rather than trickle-down message. It'll take far more of that, a virtual revolution at this point, to make it right again--to recommit our constitutional public to its founding democratic principles.

[alfredo]

4. Their problem was they put ideology above reality, and now reality

cannot be ignored. In a time when they could have stampeded us into accepting their plan, but now we are on to them.

[damntexdem]

2. Kerry WAS the representative of those who did suffer when he wasn't declared the winner:

all Americans.

[alfredo]

3. It didn't destroy us as a party. His loss wasn't a repudiation of our

beliefs. This election isn't just a rejection of McCain, but a rejection of the anti government ideology he represents.