Winning, losing, and propaganda

Thomas Frank on why the Hate Amendment is still dangerous after -- indeed, because of -- its inevitable crash and burn.

What explains this folly? Not simple bigotry, as some pundits declared, or even simple politics. While it is true that the amendment was a classic election-year ploy, it owes its power as much to a peculiar narrative of class hostility as it does to homophobia or ideology. And in this narrative, success comes by losing.