The Limousine Liberal ─ How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America

A renowned historian traces the genealogy of the limousine liberal,” the enemy that has animated right-wing populism for nearly a century

No political metaphor in recent American history has enjoyed the impact of the limousine liberal. Taking aim at what many consider the hypocrisy of wealthy liberals who champion the cause of the poor but who have no intention of bearing the costs of doing anything about their plight, it has mobilized an enduring politics of resentment against everything from civil rights to environmental regulation.

In The Limousine Liberal, Steve Fraser argues that the metaphor of the limousine liberal has had a pernicious effect on American political culture. From Henry Ford’s attacks on Jews, bankers, and Bolsheviks in the 1920s to the Tea Party’s vehement hatred of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it has served as the animus binding together right-wing populism in America.

In the vein of the late Richard Hofstadter, Fraser dives down below the surface of rational political life to identify and understand the right’s most elemental fears.

Steve Fraser is the author of The Age of Acquiescence, Every Man a Speculator,Wall Street, and Labor Will Rule, which won the Philip Taft Award for the best book in labor history. He also is the co-editor ofThe Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, theNew York Times, The Nation, The American Prospect, Raritan, and theLondon Review of Books. He has written for the online site Tomdispatch.com, and his work has appeared on theHuffington Post, Salon, Truthout, and Alternet, among others. A onetime Basic editor, he has a PhD in American history from Rutgers.