Reader's Feedback

Americans have been bamboozled by conservative propaganda into hobbling the U.S. government and letting the rich ride roughshod over the rest, according to this vehement political manifesto.

Somers, a retired trial lawyer, starts with a critique of libertarian dogma—the core of conservative ideology, he contends—which asserts that the free market can provide for everyone’s needs more efficiently than the government can. Instead, the author insists, the U.S. needs strong, democratic government to provide order, regulate business, protect the environment and climate, sustain the working and middle classes, and defend the disadvantaged against wealthy “predators.” Unfortunately, he argues, the ascendancy of libertarian ideas among Republican and even some Democratic politicians has led them to cut budgets, slash taxes on the rich, and constrain government regulatory functions. The result is soaring inequality as the rich get richer and middle-class incomes stagnate, along with colossal federal deficits, rampant environmental despoliation, inaction on climate change, lousy schools, and a private health care system that’s too expensive and leaves millions uninsured. Per the author, a toxic right-wing political culture has taken hold that scapegoats immigrants and minorities for the socioeconomic disaster wrought by free-market orthodoxies while undermining real liberties like the right to abortion. Somers’ text (written 10 years ago) sometimes feels dated. His billionaire villains are the Koch brothers, not Elon Musk and today’s AI moguls, and he’s missed both the extraordinary expansion of state power during the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of the Democratic Socialists, which might complicate his picture of anemic government and right-wing political dominance. Still, his wide-ranging and well-researched analysis of America’s political economy scores many telling points. It’s also an entertaining read, full of vignettes of arrogant Wall Street jerks in their private jets lecturing ordinary Americans on how they need to cut back, written in pungent, hard-hitting prose: “The rich and powerful, which I will henceforth refer to as the ‘rich bitches,’ the ‘bums,’ the ‘enemy’ and other fond epithets, do not care whether they damage our environment or poison us or cause world flooding.” Conservatives will find much to dispute here, but Somers offers a formidable challenge to right-wing verities.

A searing left-populist polemic, sharply reasoned and vigorously written.