Political Analyst Kevin Phillips Explores Wealth, Politics And American Democracy April 1

Chestertown, MD, March 17, 2003 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “WEALTH AND DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL CHANGE IN AMERICA,” a lecture by Kevin Phillips, political analyst and author of the New York Times bestseller Wealth and Democracy, Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge, 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

For more than 30 years, Kevin Phillips' insight into American politics and economics has helped to make history as well as record it. His best-selling books, including The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. Now, in Wealth and Democracy, Phillips turns his attention to the United States' history of great wealth and power. Critics have called him a “modern Thomas Paine,” as he explores the ongoing saga of how great wealth is accumulated and how wealth and political power have frequently worked together to create or perpetuate privilege and define national interests and policy. His analysis of present-day America illuminates a politics and corruption with excessive concentration of wealth he sees evident by tax favoritism and selective bailouts in the name of free enterprise, economic stimulus and national security.

Phillips' reputation as America's leading political analyst dates from the success and prophecy of his book The Emerging Republican Majority which was written in 1967, used in the 1968 GOP presidential campaign and published in 1969. The New York Times Book Review noted in 1993 that “through more than 25 years of analysis and prediction, nobody has been as transcendentally right about the outlines of American political change” than Phillips. Philips is the former editor-publisher of The American Political Report, a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He was a commentator for CBS TV News at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Democratic and Republican National conventions. Phillips' other books include, The Cousins Wars and Arrogant Capital.

The talk is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.