Book Review, NationalJournal.com
First things first -- cover photo and subtitle notwithstanding, Michael Lind's "Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics" is not about Bush.
The president is in there, of course, and the author clearly holds strong (and negative) opinions concerning his fellow Texan, describing him as an "aberrant president" and "one of the worst in American history." But Bush is primarily a poster boy for the book's real purpose -- to espouse Lind's theories on Southern conservatism and the ruination it has brought to the nation.
Distilled down like that, Lind sounds like a crank -- and Bush backers will no doubt argue that he is. "Made in Texas," however, is not some stream-of-consciousness screed. Lind, a native Texan and author of several previous political books, marshals 150 years of history to make his case. And he connects the Southern conservative positions on trade, race, regulation and even Israel in a way that Team Bush would do well to rebut rather than dismiss.
In a nutshell, Lind's argument is this: Southern elites have relentlessly worked to preserve the economy and social order of the Confederate South. The interests of resource-rich landowners have been pursued regardless of their cost to the common good. And while the New Deal and the civil rights era put an end to the "Confederate Century," the rise to power by Bush and other Southern conservatives has brought these elitist policies to the top of the national agenda.
So when the White House proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants from Mexico in 2001, Lind argues, it was to ensure that service-sector wages would remain low. Farm subsidies are deliberately geared to benefit "a small number of agribusiness corporations and... their out-of-state owners." And global free trade is pursued to perpetuate the South's economy of "exporting agricultural commodities and raw materials while importing manufactured goods in return." The president's new stimulus and tax-cut plan could easily be tacked onto the list.
"Made in Texas" is not entirely focused on money and class; the book is particularly provocative when it comes the seemingly strange alliance between conservative Protestants with their "apocalyptic ideology" Jewish neoconservatives committed to a strong Israel. But Lind is a New Dealer at heart, and the country's growing economic inequality clearly tops his list of concerns.
There are two Texases, he argues. The Texas of Bush and his fellow conservatives is "a society with a primitive economy based on agriculture, livestock, petroleum, and mining." In this Texas, "low wages and inadequate spending on public goods like education and pollution abatement are considered a source of comparative economic advantage."
Then there is the Texas of "Lyndon Johnson, Bobby Ray Inman, Ross Perot... and others in the modernist tradition," with its wealth based on knowledge instead of resources. That society is led "not by good-old-boy businessmen and political demagogues, but by a visionary and earnest elite of entrepreneurs, engineers, reformist politicians, and dedicated civil servants, many of them self-made men and women from humble origins." It's not difficult to determine which version Lind prefers.
Because "Made in Texas" is aimed at an audience far larger than just the Beltway crowd, Lind devotes large chunks of the book to brief accounts of the political debates and decisions he uses to make his case. Unfortunately, many of these "Cliffs Notes" summaries gloss over important complexities or mitigating factors. (Yes, Dick Cheney made millions by selling his Halliburton stock weeks before the price plummeted, but largely because he was pressured by critics to do so.) And while "Made in Texas" has plenty of examples that require no such framing, the selective omissions give Lind's inevitable critics an easy line of attack. An argument that was not quite so black-and-white would have been less attention-grabbing, but far stronger.
That said, "Made in Texas" raises questions that are worth asking -- if only so conservatives can answer or debunk them. And it's safe to assume that Lind will not be the only questioner between now and 2004.
Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics
By Michael Lind
ISBN 046-50-4121-3
Basic Books
224 pp.
