Thomas Frank Quotes

A collection of quotes by Thomas Frank.

Thomas Frank is an American author, political commentator, and historian. Born on March 21, 1965, in Kansas City, Missouri, he grew up in a conservative family and attended the University of Kansas, where he studied history and American studies. Frank gained prominence through his incisive critique of American politics and culture, particularly in the realm of the working class.

He achieved widespread recognition with his book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" published in 2004. In this bestselling work, Frank explores the political transformation of his home state, dissecting why working-class citizens vote against their economic interests and support candidates who advocate for policies detrimental to their own well-being.

Throughout his career, Frank has continued to examine the dynamics of American society, dissecting the intersections of politics, culture, and economic strife. His subsequent books include "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule" (2008), "Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right" (2012), and "Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?" (2016).

Known for his sharp wit and critical analysis, Frank is a frequent contributor to various media outlets, including The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and The Baffler. Through his writings and public commentary, he continues to shed light on the complexities of American politics and the forces that shape society, drawing attention to the challenges faced by the working class and the rising tide of economic inequality.

The only truly individualistic health-care choice - where yo

The only truly individualistic health-care choice - where you receive care that is unpolluted by anyone else's funds - is to forgo insurance altogether, paying out-of-pocket for health services as you need them.

Yes, Democrats can prove that America pays more for health c

Yes, Democrats can prove that America pays more for health care than other countries yes, they have won the dispute that private health insurance is needlessly expensive. But what they've lost is the argument that we are a society.

Health

Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merit

Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merits alone. My liberal blood boils, for example, when I read that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are brought on, in part, by medical expenses.

Alone

Our laws governing lobbying and campaign contributions have

Our laws governing lobbying and campaign contributions have struck the right balance between the wishes of the people and those of private industry, so why are we so quick to doubt that the same great results can be achieved by putting the government's justice-dealing branch on the same market-based course?

Government

What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than

What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party.

Health

Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats'

Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats' - it was second-wave, it was divisive - but 2008 made retro politics cool again.

Cool

Money has transformed every watchdog, every independent auth

Money has transformed every watchdog, every independent authority. Medical doctors are increasingly gulled by the lobbying of pharmaceutical salesmen.

Medical

Under the administration of George W. Bush, you will recall,

Under the administration of George W. Bush, you will recall, federal spending grew pretty significantly. At the same time, the number of people directly employed by the federal government shrank. One of the factors that explained the difference was contracting.

Government

While Democrats fussed with the details of health care refor

While Democrats fussed with the details of health care reforms, conservatives spent months telling the nation that the real issue is freedom, that what's on the line is American liberty itself.

Freedom

Most of Roosevelt's innovations have been the law of the lan

Most of Roosevelt's innovations have been the law of the land for 70 years now, and yet we are still a free society free enough, that is, to allow tens of thousands of protesters to gather on the National Mall and to broadcast their slogans and speeches to the world via C-SPAN.

Society

For-profit higher education is today a booming industry, fee

For-profit higher education is today a booming industry, feeding on the student loans handed out to the desperate.

Education

The great fear that hung over the business community in the

The great fear that hung over the business community in the 1970s was death by regulation, and the great goal of the conservative movement, as it rose to triumph in the 1980s, was to remove that threat - to keep OSHA, the EPA, and the FTC from choking off entrepreneurship with their infernal meddling in the marketplace.

Business

When the entertainers of the Right aren't declaring their di

When the entertainers of the Right aren't declaring their disgust with President Obama for groveling before foreign potentates, they're pretending to fear him as a left-wing thug, an exemplar of what they call 'the Chicago way.'

Fear

Maybe that first, gigantic deficit the Reaganites piled up w

Maybe that first, gigantic deficit the Reaganites piled up was an accident, just a combination of deluded 'supply side' tax cuts and a huge bag of good stuff for the Pentagon. But pretty quickly conservatives discovered that deficits, when done correctly, did something really cool: deficits defunded the Left.

Cool

One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is tha

One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is that society doesn't work on this mirror principle, you don't have an exact replica on the left of what you have on the right. It just doesn't work that way.

Society

Reporters used to be blue-collar at the Globe now, it's prac

Reporters used to be blue-collar at the Globe now, it's practically required that you have a trust fund.

Life

Reporters used to be blue-collar at the Globe now, it's prac

Reporters used to be blue-collar at the Globe now, it's practically required that you have a trust fund.

Life

There are few things in politics more annoying than the Righ

There are few things in politics more annoying than the Right's utter conviction that it owns the patent on the word 'freedom' that when its leaders stand up for the rights of banks to be unregulated or capital gains to be untaxed, that it is actually and obviously standing up for human liberty, the noblest cause of them all.

Freedom

In America, we no longer have an institutionalized, organize

In America, we no longer have an institutionalized, organized way of calling business to task - of taking them to account for what they've done - and this is especially true in the cultural realm.

Business

There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that t

There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that the National Portrait Gallery's version of the Barack Obama 'Hope' poster previously belonged to a pair of lobbyists. Depressing because Mr. Obama's Washington was not supposed to be the lobbyists' Washington, the place we learned to despise during the last administration.

Hope