Generate "organic buzz"by adopting outrageous stances on social media. Get the right wing outage machine to brand you a Communist. Reasonable folks will really to your defence and buy the book. E.g. Slouching Towards Utopia undermines the tax cut mania of the right. Or Slouching makes the case that immigration is vital to America's future economic and physical security. To put it briefly, chumthe waters.
"But, in my view at least, before Gingrich there was always a very strong sense that the political center-of-gravity was still liberal and conservative—working together to fix roof leaks or finish the addition, with disagreements as to how to do it best."
I think Rick Perlstein would push the problem back at least to Nixon and probably to Goldwater.
Arguably Richard Viguerie deserves mention as a key figure as well . . .
There's a book on politics that is not widely read, but which I found fascinating, and makes me think of the Gingrich years as a meaningful shift -- _Command Performance:
An Actress in the Theater of Politics_, Jane Alexander's memoir about running the NEA under Clinton. It's fascinating precisely because she's not a politician.
She talks about the fights over the NEA authorization and support from key Republicans like Nancy Kassebaum or Orrin Hatch (surprisingly) in a way that suggests a still-functioning Senate, but there is a clear shift over her time in the Endowment.
"Command Performance" is a book I highly recommend, but assume that most people won't end up reading. It doesn't offer any grand lessons or theoretical insights, but it's a well written story about the practical effort in running an agency-- negotiating with congress, public appearances, administering programs-- that is deeply heartfelt in it's appreciation for the arts and the NEA and modest in recognizing that she was inexperienced and a very small player politically.
Generate "organic buzz"by adopting outrageous stances on social media. Get the right wing outage machine to brand you a Communist. Reasonable folks will really to your defence and buy the book. E.g. Slouching Towards Utopia undermines the tax cut mania of the right. Or Slouching makes the case that immigration is vital to America's future economic and physical security. To put it briefly, chumthe waters.
"But, in my view at least, before Gingrich there was always a very strong sense that the political center-of-gravity was still liberal and conservative—working together to fix roof leaks or finish the addition, with disagreements as to how to do it best."
I think Rick Perlstein would push the problem back at least to Nixon and probably to Goldwater.
Arguably Richard Viguerie deserves mention as a key figure as well . . .
There's a book on politics that is not widely read, but which I found fascinating, and makes me think of the Gingrich years as a meaningful shift -- _Command Performance:
An Actress in the Theater of Politics_, Jane Alexander's memoir about running the NEA under Clinton. It's fascinating precisely because she's not a politician.
She talks about the fights over the NEA authorization and support from key Republicans like Nancy Kassebaum or Orrin Hatch (surprisingly) in a way that suggests a still-functioning Senate, but there is a clear shift over her time in the Endowment.
Yes. Viguerie is a key player...
I have never read "Command Performance"...
"Command Performance" is a book I highly recommend, but assume that most people won't end up reading. It doesn't offer any grand lessons or theoretical insights, but it's a well written story about the practical effort in running an agency-- negotiating with congress, public appearances, administering programs-- that is deeply heartfelt in it's appreciation for the arts and the NEA and modest in recognizing that she was inexperienced and a very small player politically.