The New New Left

"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."--Jacket.