What's the Matter with Kansas again

I have mentioned Thomas Frank's important new book What's the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. In a sparkling review by Jason Epstein in the New York Review of Books, this quote stands out:

Hermann Goering famously told an interviewer during his trial at Nuremberg that

people don't want to go to war.... But, after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship.... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.

The whole review is well worth reading.