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写到这里，弗兰克还拿右翼电视评论明星格伦•贝克打趣了一番。贝克在电视荧屏上歇斯底里的表演久负盛名，弗兰克对此不惜笔墨。此外，他还抽出时间来解构了贝克的虚构类畅销书《奥弗顿之窗》（The Overton Window）。书中，一位进步主义公关大将爱上了一位信仰保守主义的女孩。小说中还提及了政府运作的拘留所——一些保守主义者曾经担心奥巴马政府2009年的时候曾有意修建此类设施。 事后，在一个并不适合虚构的场合，贝克告诉读者，联邦紧急事务管理署（FEMA）的一名前主管确实提出过这样的建议。可有些事实，他却只字不提：涉及此事的FEMA前主管是罗纳德•里根一位顾问的密友，而他之所以提出上述紧急计划，是为了应对反战示威者。 作为一名作家，弗兰克的强项在于，他能从自由主义的视角来分析保守阵营的策略。在其2004年畅销书《堪萨斯怎么了？》（What's the Matter with Kansas）中，他描述了共和党战略家的绝招：利用反堕胎和抨击平权法案等社会议题拉拢美国蓝领，使其罔顾自己的经济利益，投票给共和党人。 然而，弗兰克对茶党的分析却没有这么成功。他喋喋不休地抱怨茶党集会的金钱意味，但不知道他到底要说明什么问题。他还不厌其烦地向读者倾诉该运动商业努力的细节，指责其茶党香烟每盒售价125美元，而印着盘旋响尾蛇标志的旗帜也要卖40美元（另外还要加上运费）。可是，一个政治团体通过销售纪念品来筹集资金，这又有什么错呢？ 弗兰克尖锐的严辞有时令人厌烦，他的盲点同样令人不安。对于自由主义阵营对茶党民粹主义的回应，他鲜有提及。此外，他还忽视了华尔街运动，却揪着一年多前就从福克斯新闻台（Fox News）离职的格伦•贝克不放，使自己的书显得有些过时。 总而言之，弗兰克希望金融危机之后能出现一场新版罗斯福新政，可事实并非如此，故而大失所望。他的新书或许使其他感到失望的自由主义者欣慰。这本书同样也为其他一些人理清了头绪，这些人看着形形色色共和党总统候选人，深感困惑，：“这一切到底是怎么发生的？” 译者：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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