Let Them Eat Tweets

How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

By: Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

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 40-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. 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.

©2020 Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson (P)2020 Kalorama

Captivating listen

Peter Berkrot has an amazing voice that commands listening to. The subject is presented in a dry sort of narrative and it is easy to be lulled to sleep by Peters voice and the subject matter but this is something that our young people should be learning about as they are the people who can make the changes necessary. I was not encouraged by the conclusion. However of all of the books I have listened to on this subject of plutocrats and plutocratic government this is the best one.l and lays out a scary direction that the GOP and it’s supporters have been able to attain. Please listen to this book and don’t sleep. WAKE UP and join the fight to end this!

Concise summary of the past 40 years of politics

Concise summary of the past 40 years of politics. Excellent analysis, and realistic solutions

Most informative and a must read.

The political and cultural situation the United States is in is truly scary and this book exposes it all. It lays the players and the goals, and the methods used to achieve those goals bare. The book is a wake-up call to citizen with a brain.

The other pandemic

We did counter the corporate government once. We must do it again. Franklin is right "if you can keep it"

Answered: How did Trump happen?

If your faith in US democracy was shaken by the election and policies of Trump, this well researched text will be enlightening. Unfortunately, it’s not just Trump but rather a concerted effort by the wealthy GOP power brokers and far right surrogates that have devised tools to maintain minority rule. A must read/listen.