This period since the primaries ended and before the conventions has the same feel for the first of the two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. You know who's going to play, but know you're going to have to endure the endless hype, analysis and speculation before the game is actually played. Enough already. Let's just play the game! Or, in this case, let's just have the election. Right?

Anyway, I find myself looking for material illustrative of teaching points. What I find is mildly interesting, but not really the kind of meaty intellectually developmental content worth your time or mind. Either that, or its written with such a strong slant to it that I think it doesn't really fit here.

The article I have tonight fits into the latter category. Thomas Frank wrote What's the Matter with Kansas? to try to explain how conservatives think. Now he has written The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Govern. As Tomgram says of Frank's book and the article at the link, "Frank offers nothing short of a how-to history of the conservative era -- specifically how to destroy a government, leave Americans in the lurch, and enrich yourselves all at the same time. It wasn't just, as he argues, that this administration left "smoking guns" littered around the landscape, but that it itself was the smoking gun. If you want to know just what we face as a nation in terms of rebuilding America, his book is a good place to start. "

Of course, we'll look for an article to publish with a slant going the other way. We'll happily accept suggestions for consideration.

Here's a link to the article.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174963