tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post2996395798948630859..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Rick Perlstein's Analysis of A Fear-Based American ElectorateDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-53717583546500167612011-08-18T14:31:47.587-07:002011-08-18T14:31:47.587-07:00Thinking a bit more about this -- I guess what I w...Thinking a bit more about this -- I guess what I worry about most here is that the ascension to the level of analysis focusing on "axieties" evacuates too much of the substance of the differences that make a difference between the Republican and the Democratic parties both in terms of election outcomes and ethos. <br /><br />Perlstein no more wants to do this than I do, so I think I'm warning him that his analytic focus might not yield the outcomes he means for it to. at least as readily as he might want it to do -- even if his analysis has more to recommend it than the more usual more facile equivalency theses one hears about the parties both from Villagers forever pining after a phantom middle or from Teavangelical or Third Party lefties declaring a plague on both their houses and so on. <br /><br />As a rhetorician, however, I can easily imagine contexts in which Perlstein's framing might be useful -- for example among actually independent minded Republicans of an Eisenhower bent thinking of voting for or with FDR Democrats toward practical public investments. But of course, these sorts of Republicans don't really exist anymore, nor are there Independents like this outside of fleeting fancies arising out of Villager circle-jerks. <br /><br />I don't think Perstein's frame is a useful way to draw the contrast in today's political context -- I don't think it is even that useful as a tool to bring about a marginally more sane context in which it could become more useful.<br /><br />I still like Perlstein, though, and I couldn't recommend <i>Nixonland</i> or his Goldwater book <i>Before the Storm</i> more enthusiastically.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.com