The Return of the "L" Word: A Liberal Vision for the New Century

by Douglas S. Massey

Book Overview

Somewhere in the 1970s liberals in the United States lost their way. After successes like the New Deal, they became arrogant. So argues Douglas Massey in Return of the "L" Word. Faced with the difficult politics of race and class, liberals used the heavy hand of government to impose policies on a resentful public. Conservatives capitalized on this with a staunch ideology of free markets, limited government, and conservative social values...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691123039
• ISBN13: 9780691123035
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Much needed - especially for the 2006 Elections

The best part of the book is Dr. Massey's unflinching view of how the liberals essentially led to their own downfall thanks to the excesses of the 1970s identity politics and neglect of the working poor and middle-class. His Chapter 3 is worth the price of the book as it outlines a great argument to the conservative's rallying cry of free markets. Liberals need to embrace the concept of "fair markets" as the best response to conservative slurs of liberals as being socialists.

Honesty is the best economic and political policy

To revive the liberal movement in America and achieve future policy success, Princeton Professor Doug Massey argues that liberals need to articulate how their issue positions will speak and can speak to the everyday needs of people and how this has been done in the past. Massey points out that the conservative movement benefits very few people, but effective marketing (and the subsequent positioning) has made all of the difference. People honestly believing that they are also included in the 'beneficiaries' of a conservative policy are not necessarily going to stop and read the very fine print. But, it's the fine print which catches the 'everybody else' every single time. Conservative politicians talk about 'common people's lives' because they have learned this is what brings in the votes, but they remain as detached and self-absorbed as ever. They still want a majority of the wealth concentrated in a compact segment. A key strength of Massey's work is that it recognizes the power of economic systems to bring about political and social transformation. Viewing markets as autonomous entities apart from politics ultimately proves disastrous and we need to be articulating how our world view will ultimately benefit other people in 'concrete ways' inside their own daily lives.