Think about how crazy our politics has become. Representatives from poor and lower middle class districts want to eliminate labor unions, lower the minimum wage, take away health care, privatize social security and eliminate the social safety net. Even public education is under siege.The president admits that the GOP health care bill is mean and Karen Handel, the newest member of congress from Georgia’s 6th district says that “people have no right to a livable wage.”
This was not always the Republican party. So how did this transformation happen? Some argue that it’s all about the social issues issues. That it's things like abortion, race, LGBTQ rights and religion that has gotten people to vote counter to their economic self interests. That’s the What’s the Matter with Kansas construct. But it’s not entirely true.
There has been a very deliberate plan to undermine liberal democracy, the economy, the constitution and the very role of government. This is about more than just the one-percent wanting to pay less taxes. There is a more fundamental, much more sinister and deliberate aspect to all of this. That is the story that Nancy MacLean tells in Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.
My conversation on WhoWhatWhy.org with Nancy MacLean:
