NY Magazine, Oct. 11, 2004 The National Interest The Powerless Elite How the Democrats have abandoned majoritarian politics for the monied set.
By Thomas Frank
By all objective standards, this ought to be a Democratic year. The recovery isn’t recovering. The national adventure in Iraq has not only gone sour, it is now clear to everyone that it was launched on a contrived and specious premise. Meanwhile, the president’s economic policies perfectly express the mean-spirited self-interest behind the conservative revolution that he leads, while he seems oblivious to the disaster. Besides, he didn’t win the popular vote last time around. John Kerry ought to be mopping the floor with him.
And yet it is George W. Bush who is drawing the adoring throngs in the dying steel towns and the hard-bitten coal-mining regions. It is his team that is always there with a comically vicious TV commercial or a well-targeted counterpunch. Even the falsehoods are breaking Bush’s way, with conservative lies stirring up damaging doubts about Kerry’s service in Vietnam and liberal lies about Bush’s days in the Texas Air National Guard reflecting discredit only on the bearers—despite the absence of any evidence linking said lies to the party. This election is beginning to seem like a terrible mismatch: the New England Patriots versus the squad from Ball State.
full: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/columns/nationalinterest/9988/index.html
In the same issue:
Supercuts
For twenty years, Orlando Pita has styled hair for the likes of Madonna, Kate Moss, Jennifer Connelly, and Gwyneth Paltrow in fashion shoots. Now he’ll cut yours for about the rent on a Brooklyn studio apartment: $800. Next week, he’s opening a salon, to be called Orlo (which is also his nickname in the business) at 34 Gansevoort Street. It’s just a comb’s throw from where Sally Hershberger charges a much-publicized $600. Nonetheless, he aims for inclusiveness: “I want to work on black, Asian, and Hispanic hair,” says Pita. Hershberger says she’s not worried about his outpricing her. “Whatever you feel you are worth, get it. I had three women crying from happiness today after I cut their hair. Orlando’s genius, and he should charge whatever he wants.”
—Beth Landman
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