Thomas Frank, Out of Touch

Today's article in the Wall Street Journal by Thomas Frank is interesting--not for shedding light on his subject, but rather for displaying his own out-of-touch, elitism.

He describes today's conservatives as the "living dead," clinging to "discredited notions." But he doesn't actually detail any of the notions that supposedly have been discredited. Is he referring to the Reaganomics that got us out of the recession of the early '80's? He doesn't say.

He goes on to chronicle a "tea party" he attended in Washington D.C. where suits were common attire worn by the protesters. As the event wore on, he says, slogans were repeated, "zombie-like." He says he "got out of there quick." (I realize his was just an opinion piece, where wider rhetorical license is given; but I can't help but wonder how he could both witness the event wearing on and at the same time get out of there quick.)

Mr. Frank describes the phenomena of "tea parties" and general protestation of the expansionist government as "capitalist self-pity." And he says that the Republican party is also "out of touch." But again, Mr. Frank fails to describe what basis he has for these labels.

If the Republican party is out of touch, it is in the way that they don't yet fully realizing how tired their grass-roots members are with the uncontrolled growth of government--including growth that was sanctioned by Republican leaders in Washington.

Die-hard leftists, like Thomas Frank, confuse standing on principles that may not be in vogue with being out of touch. It's understandable, though, because people like Thomas Frank don't have principles--at least not the traditional American principle of liberty.

(And just for the record, I didn't come across any suit-donning protesters at either the Kansas or Missouri protests that I attended.)