Listen, Liberal

“Listen Liberal” is neither well-written nor well-justified. At one point, the author claims that he timed out while listening to one of the Democratic presidents he excoriates.

Below, I'm going to point out numerous problems with the author's logic.

Frank spends much of the beginning of his diatribe equating professionalism with neoliberalism and privatization. Yet, is it not the Republican Party pushing privatization/corporatization of public institutions? On p. 89, the author states “But, among people with professional degrees - which is to say, the liberal class...”. Um, what? The author completely ignores all of the conservative people who have degrees or are professional who certainly don't consider themselves liberal. Later, the author claims that professionals admire complexity and complexity was the key to the financial crisis, therefore professionals=financial crisis. How is that liberal, specifically? The reasoning simply isn't there!

Frank also states that professional liberals do not support unions or income equality. That the well-educated believe in a meritocracy, which ignores the working class family who can't make it on minimum wage. How is this a liberal idea? Is it not the Democrats who are fighting for minimum wage increases?

The book disparages education initiatives assuming that all education is about going to college. Basic education is a right for all children, yet many children do not receive-education includes vocational training and retraining, which is important when vast sections of the country undergo industry expansion and contraction.

I was particularly offended by the statement on p. 37 the entire accounting profession is people by the ineffectual & corrupt.

Frank compares FDR's cabinet's lack of degrees to Obama's to show the former was better. Yet, the rate at which people earn degrees is very different 70-80 years ago.

Right before I decided to put the book down, the author goes on to say how bad NAFTA is for Mexico and US job losses, but does not mention the movement of manufacturing to China just a few years after NAFTA was enacted. I'm not arguing for free trade, but, show he entire picture if you're going to discuss a topic.

This book is written like an angry blog with little logic or research behind it. As much as I'd like to understand viewpoints of those who have different political ideologies, this is not a useful resource.