City Journal Winter 2006 | Ronald Reagan's Unlikely Heir by Steven Malanga

Steven Malanga sees a lot of similarity between Ronald Reagan and another convert to the Republican party, this one a fellow campaigning for governor in Ohio.

Malanga is the author of The New New Left: How American Politics Works Today (Dee, Ivan R. Publisher, 2005). From the Publisher (via Barnes & Noble):

"Politics in America today is more than just a contest between left and right, liberal and conservative, argues Steven Malanga in The New New Left. The old labels no longer accurately describe how politics works today, especially in America's urban areas. Instead there's an emerging new political dynamic: the contest between those who benefit from an ever-expanding public sector and those who pay for this bigger government - in other words, between tax consumers and taxpayers." In sharp vignettes, Mr. Malanga traces the rise of the tax consumers' movement to two sources. One is the growth of public-sector employee unions beginning in the 1950s, which produced an increasingly powerful and influential lineup of organizations that are essentially political. The second is the War on Poverty of the 1960s, whose funding of grassroots social service groups created a new type of neighborhood "political club," sustained by and organized around public funding.

To give the other side its air time, I think I'll mention that the critic writing for Kirkus Reviews, as reprinted at Barnes & Noble, uses this book as an excuse to riff on the evils of Wal-Mart and further says The New New Left is:

The usual tongue-clucking about the egghead conspiracy, on about the same intellectual level as the "annoy a liberal" bumper stickers that have been popping up lately. Caveat emptor.

I find I rarely agree with modern Kirkus Reviews, but don't say you haven't been warned...

I haven't seen the book. If any of you have read it, please let me know what you think of it. Thanks.