Blogging GNP

The nice thing about having a co-author is that he can help shoulder the load of responding to comments on your book - and with that in mind, here's Reihan responding to Ezra Klein, to Ramesh, to Norm Ornstein (by way of Jonah Goldberg), and of course to Rush Limbaugh.

Comments

I enjoyed Reihan's response to Limbaugh.

Posted by Marc | July 1, 2008 6:10 AM

I'd say that in Ross's case, the best thing about having a co-writer is that Reihan is very talented and almost pulls off the ideological bait and switch he attempts in his response to Limbaugh. When Ross writes on this subject the shell game is much more transparent.

But Reihan's response to Limbaugh, well-written though it may be, does not really give anyone a reason to vote Republican. He throws in enough Hayekian buzzwords to cover his tracks, but the basic motif he's working in is good-government liberalism. His goal is to introduce wonky reforms to make public institutions more efficient and user friendly, while also doing a better job of delivering public services to the people who need them most. This sounds quite a bit more like Michael Dukakis or Al Gore than either of the George Bushes who clubbed them over the heads with cultural anxieties, anti-tax dogma, and white resentments toward redistributive programs.

So why build a Grand New Party at all? Why try to shoehorn the interests of the working class into a party that caters to the whims of Exxon, Haliburton, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Bahamian tax shelter set? Why not throw your lot in with Obama's Chicago School Economists and work to reform our public institutions within the same party as nearly everyone else who cares about this stuff? There may be a case to be made that the Republican Party is a better instrument for public sector reform than the Democrats, but I haven't seen either Ross or Reihan make this case.

As I said in a previous thread -- this is a grab bag of philosophically unconnected items that are tactically designed to build a Republican majority, written by people who have a vested interest in Republican Party domination of American politics for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with economic policy or institutional reform, and who know full well that the economic interests of the working class are unlikely to ever be more than an afterthought in the Republican Party.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | July 1, 2008 9:45 AM

LaFollette Progressive

the question is can the Democratic party be the party of open borders and unlimited immigration along with being the party of quotas, affirmative action, set asides, and the Congressional Black Caucus while appealing to blue collar whites.

Posted by superdestroyer | July 1, 2008 10:43 AM