The Return of the ""L"" Word: A Liberal Vision for the New Century

Though this slim manifesto from Princeton sociology and public affairs professor Massey purports to offer a blueprint for liberals who want to ""turn the tables on conservatives,"" it is largely a one-sided argument in favor of Democrats and against ""radical"" Republicans. In his attempt to recast the word ""liberal"" as a positive descriptor, Massey defines the term so broadly that it loses much of its meaning, and the optimistic picture he paints of the liberal utopia that supposedly existed before the rise of the VARWICON (i.e., the ""Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy"") will raise some eyebrows. But this is an unabashedly partisan work, one that attempts to reach out to the dedicated fan bases of Paul Krugman and Molly Ivins. Unfortunately, Massey offers little here that's new. He dissects the tactics of conservative contingents and levels familiar accusations at the ""House of Bush"" and its ""cronies."" However, he doesn't just blame conservatives: he is withering in his assessment of liberals' inability to defend their principles and connect with voters. Massey proposes some items for a liberal agenda-including increased market transparency and large-scale education reform-and his use of economic sociology to analyze markets is intriguing. But it yields no particularly innovative prescriptions for Liberals looking to restore the strength of their party; instead, he falls back on the facile, binary worldview he claims conservatives possess.