The emotional fervor generated by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, argues sociologist Piven (Why Americans Don't Vote
), has helped what she sees as the domestic neoconservative agenda, as well as altered a historical pattern in which governments waging war wind up expanding civil rights and social programs. The turn to preemptive war and the disregard of international linkages, she claims, is part of a domestic strategy, just as the Cold War justified the domestic Red Scare. Piven doesn't add original research; rather she synthesizes a wide range of reportage and commentators (Chalmers Johnson, Kevin Phillips, Naomi Klein, Garry Wills, Jonathan Schell, etc.) in sometimes bloglike fashion. She finds Bush backers in Congress invoked the need to avoid partisan bickering in wartime—thus hastening passage of corporate-friendly tax-cut legislation and deregulation. Meanwhile, cuts in federal spending increase pressure on the states to cut back their own social spending. Piven doesn't pause much to analyze why the opposition Democrats and others let this happen, but she does argue that the fallout from the wars makes the administration vulnerable in the upcoming election. "War itself cannot be an effective cover for this ruse for long," she concludes, predicting (while at the same time working herself to foster) an atmosphere conducive to regime change. (Oct.)
