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讓他們吃推文：在極端不平等的時代，正確的統治如何
https://www.amazon.ca/Let-them-Eat-Tweets-Inequality/dp/1631496840
作者：Jacob S Hacker（作者）、Paul Pierson（作者）2020 年 7 月 7 日
對財閥經濟優先事項和右翼民粹主義訴求之間危險結合的開創性描述，以及它如何威脅美國民主的支柱。
共和黨似乎分為減稅保守派和白人民族主義先鋒派，隨著唐納德·特朗普的崛起，新貴們似乎正在獲勝。 然而，我們如何解釋，在特朗普的領導下，富豪們幾乎得到了他們想要的一切，包括對企業和富人的大幅減稅、扼殺監管的行政行動，以及大批對商業友好的聯邦法官？ 共和黨代表“被遺忘”的美國人嗎？ 還是代表超級富豪？
暢銷書政治學家雅各布·S·哈克和保羅·皮爾森在《讓他們吃推文》一書中給出了明確的答案：共和黨為其財閥主人服務的程度在現代全球曆史上是史無前例的。 保守黨本質上幾乎總是站在富人一邊。 但當麵對民眾的抵製時，他們通常會做出讓步，允許一些有利於工人階級和中產階級的政策。 畢竟，如果一個政黨隻服務於社會一小部分富裕階層的利益，那麽它如何能夠在民主國家中維持權力呢？
今天的共和黨人已經指明了道路，他們加倍努力推行真正激進、有利於精英的經濟議程，同時對幾乎全部是白人的選民群體提出越來越煽動性的種族和文化訴求。 哈克和皮爾森講述了四十年的故事，證明自 20 世紀 80 年代初期不平等開始加劇以來，極端減稅、破壞工會和放鬆管製與極端種族誘餌、煽動憤怒和虛假信息齊頭並進。 共和黨沒有回應選民麵臨的真正挑戰，而是製造分裂和幹擾——最突出的是總統推特上的種族主義和本土主義情緒。
正如哈克和皮爾森所說，特朗普並沒有與共和黨最近的過去決裂。 相反，他體現了對富豪統治和右翼極端主義的日益擁護——哈克和皮爾森稱之為“富豪民粹主義”。 隨著特朗普和他的極右翼盟友散布仇恨和謊言，國會和州議會的共和黨人攻擊社會項目，並向美國最富有的 0.1% 人輸送越來越多的資金。 反動的富豪和右翼民粹主義者非但沒有相互交戰，反而成為了一個政黨的兩個麵孔，該政黨現在積極破壞民主，以違背大多數美國人的意願來實現其目標。
哈克和皮爾森憑借數十年的研究，權威地解釋了我們這個時代特有的減稅和散布恐慌的厄運循環，並揭示了我們如何反擊。
Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
https://www.amazon.ca/Let-them-Eat-Tweets-Inequality/dp/1631496840
by Jacob S Hacker (Author), Paul Pierson (Author) July 7 2020
A groundbreaking account of the dangerous marriage of plutocratic economic priorities and right-wing populist appeals—and how it threatens the pillars of American democracy.
The Republican Party appears to be divided between a tax-cutting old guard and a white-nationalist vanguard—and with Donald Trump’s ascendance, the upstarts seem to be winning. Yet how are we to explain that, under Trump, the plutocrats have gotten almost everything they want, including a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, regulation-killing executive actions, and a legion of business-friendly federal judges? Does the GOP represent “forgotten” Americans? Or does it represent the superrich?
In Let Them Eat Tweets, best-selling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature, almost always side with the rich. But when faced with popular resistance, they usually make concessions, allowing some policies that benefit the working and middle classes. After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society?
Today’s Republicans have shown the way, doubling down on a truly radical, elite-benefiting economic agenda while at the same time making increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to their almost entirely white base. Telling a forty-year story, Hacker and Pierson demonstrate that since the early 1980s, when inequality started spiking, extreme tax cutting, union busting, and deregulation have gone hand in hand with extreme race-baiting, outrage stoking, and disinformation. Instead of responding to the real challenges facing voters, the Republican Party offers division and distraction—most prominently, in the racist, nativist bile of the president’s Twitter feed.
As Hacker and Pierson argue, Trump isn’t a break with the GOP’s recent past. On the contrary, he embodies its tightening embrace of plutocracy and right-wing extremism—a dynamic Hacker and Pierson call “plutocratic populism.” As Trump and his far-right allies spew hatred and lies, Republicans in Congress and in statehouses attack social programs and funnel more and more money to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. Far from being at war with each other, reactionary plutocrats and right-wing populists have become the two faces of a party that now actively undermines democracy to achieve its goals against the will of the majority of Americans.
Drawing on decades of research, Hacker and Pierson authoritatively explain the doom loop of tax cutting and fearmongering that characterizes our era—and reveal how we can fight back.
