What's the Matter with Politics?

"Harry Truman was no centrist, and neither was he a radical. Still, listening to his ferocious ad-libs back in 1948 (which was, incidentally, not during the Great Depression), his audience could have had few doubts about what the Democratic Party stood for. Truman was explicit: '[T]he Democratic Party is the people’s party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.' He reveled in what Mr. Klein would call 'class war,' calling a Republican tax cut a 'rich man’s tax bill' that 'helps the rich and sticks a knife into the back of the poor' and describing politics as a contest between the 'common everyday man' and the 'favored classes,' the 'privileged few.' Even more astonishingly, Truman went on to talk policy in some detail, with special emphasis on Mr. Klein’s hated 'jobs, health-care, and blah-blah-blah': He called for the construction of public housing, an increase in the minimum wage, expansion of Social Security, a national health-care program and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. And this sort of high-octane oratory propelled Truman on to win the election in a historic upset."

Thomas Frank reviews Joe Klein's Politics Lost in The New York Observer.