With only a few weeks left before the elections, I have to admit that one of the last things on my mind is, frankly, the elections. This isn’t a college exam, people. Last-minute cramming might help, but you should know your material by now. If you still find yourself getting in heated debates about hockey moms as VP’s versus terrorists as Presidents, maybe it’s time to take a break and do some reading or something. Try to remember: people with actual power love the fact that intellectuals and academics spend so much time talking about politics that they generally never do anything. Two books have fueled my pointless political dialog recently: The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, by Thomas Frank does a nice job of outlining how the conservative movement did its part in corrupting Washington. In spite of being an established drooling rabid liberal, he does a fantastic job in this book of doing what PJ O’Rourke has always done on the other side (well, Frank’s not nearly as funny): pointing out the absurdity of it all while making a buck on the tragedy. An excellent read that manages to maintain a fairly observational tone while letting conservatives’ actions skewer themselves. For a sort of longer-term perspective, I’m just finishing up The Affluent Society, the influential 1958 book by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Aside from helping impart some perspective on how the parties and cultural landscape have shifted over the years (while remaining disturbingly the same, in many ways), Galbraith is also generally credited with bringing us the term “conventional wisdom”. The book is also fun to read in the way that 19th-century English novels are fun to read, using the kind of language wherein a phrase like “she’s kinda plain lookin’” becomes “she is not what one would call entirely unattractive”. If anyone has any suggested reading on the conservative side (sparing me the Ann Coulter/Rush Limbaugh pamphleteering) feel free to share…