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????寫到這里，弗蘭克還拿右翼電視評論明星格倫?貝克打趣了一番。貝克在電視熒屏上歇斯底里的表演久負盛名，弗蘭克對此不惜筆墨。此外，他還抽出時間來解構了貝克的虛構類暢銷書《奧弗頓之窗》（The Overton Window）。書中，一位進步主義公關大將愛上了一位信仰保守主義的女孩。小說中還提及了政府運作的拘留所——一些保守主義者曾經擔心奧巴馬政府2009年的時候曾有意修建此類設施。 ????事后，在一個并不適合虛構的場合，貝克告訴讀者，聯邦緊急事務管理署（FEMA）的一名前主管確實提出過這樣的建議。可有些事實，他卻只字不提：涉及此事的FEMA前主管是羅納德?里根一位顧問的密友，而他之所以提出上述緊急計劃，是為了應對反戰示威者。 ????作為一名作家，弗蘭克的強項在于，他能從自由主義的視角來分析保守陣營的策略。在其2004年暢銷書《堪薩斯怎么了？》（What's the Matter with Kansas）中，他描述了共和黨戰略家的絕招：利用反墮胎和抨擊平權法案等社會議題拉攏美國藍領，使其罔顧自己的經濟利益，投票給共和黨人。 ????然而，弗蘭克對茶黨的分析卻沒有這么成功。他喋喋不休地抱怨茶黨集會的金錢意味，但不知道他到底要說明什么問題。他還不厭其煩地向讀者傾訴該運動商業努力的細節，指責其茶黨香煙每盒售價125美元，而印著盤旋響尾蛇標志的旗幟也要賣40美元（另外還要加上運費）。可是，一個政治團體通過銷售紀念品來籌集資金，這又有什么錯呢？ ????弗蘭克尖銳的嚴辭有時令人厭煩，他的盲點同樣令人不安。對于自由主義陣營對茶黨民粹主義的回應，他鮮有提及。此外，他還忽視了華爾街運動，卻揪著一年多前就從福克斯新聞臺（Fox News）離職的格倫?貝克不放，使自己的書顯得有些過時。 ????總而言之，弗蘭克希望金融危機之后能出現一場新版羅斯福新政，可事實并非如此，故而大失所望。他的新書或許使其他感到失望的自由主義者欣慰。這本書同樣也為其他一些人理清了頭緒，這些人看著形形色色共和黨總統候選人，深感困惑，：“這一切到底是怎么發生的？” ????譯者：小宇 |
????On this point, Frank riffs entertainingly on right-wing TV icon Glenn Beck. Besides detailing Beck's famous on-screen hysterics, Frank takes time to deconstruct Beck's fictional bestseller The Overton Window, in which a progressive PR flak falls for a conservative girl. The novel includes references to government-run internment camps that some conservatives feared the new Obama administration was constructing in 2009. ????In a non-fiction afterward, Beck tells readers that a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had actually proposed the idea. He neglects to mention that the FEMA director in question was a close friend of an advisor to Ronald Reagan, and that the emergency scheme was proposed as a way of dealing with antiwar protesters. ????Frank's strength as an author has been dissecting right-wing political tactics from a liberal perspective. In his 2004 best seller, What's the Matter with Kansas, he described how Republican strategists persuaded blue-collar Americans to vote against their own economic interests using social rallying cries like abortion and affirmation action. ????Frank's analysis of the Tea Party is less successful. He rails, with no clear point, about the moneyed interests at Tea Party rallies. He also overwhelms the reader with details of the movement's commercial efforts, citing a $125 box of Tea Party cigars and a $40 (plus shipping) flag covered with the coiled rattlesnake emblem. But why is it wrong for a political movement to raise money by selling promotional products? ????Frank's strident rhetoric can be wearying, and so can his blind spots. There's scant reference to the liberal reaction to the Tea Party's populism. He dates himself by ignoring the Occupy Wall Street movement and by writing obsessively about Glenn Beck, who stepped down from his Fox News post more than a year ago. ????In essence, Frank expected a new New Deal to emerge after the financial crisis and was unhappy when it failed to emerge. His book will delight other disappointed liberals. But it's also a road map for everyone who wonders, while watching the hodgepodge of Republican presidential candidates: How the heck did all this happen? |
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