Once Upon A Time In Kansas

I’ve highlighted Thomas Frank’s latest book on the sidebar because it’s one of the most intriguing nonfiction books I’ve read in the last couple years. Frank is an astute observer of the political forces shaping his home state of Kansas. and because Kansas is supposed to represent quintessential Middle America, it might also explain similar trends in other states. What was once a hotbed of radical left-leaning political movements is now one of the most conservative states in the nation. He explains that modern conservatism has succeeded in uniting people of vastly different economic backgrounds on social issues like abortion, etc. People in lower and middle income brackets vote Republican even though Republican economic policies overwhelmingly favor the wealthy. This strategy is brilliant because the social battles are ones that can never really be won, but it’s what mobilizes the base and they can be relied on to also vote for tax cuts that will almost certainly do nothing to benefit them. These people, good and decent for the most part, vote for policies that will weaken their towns and cities, slash funding in their children’s education, and deny themselves health care while allowing themselves to be placated by promises of a restoration of “traditional values” in this country; promises that will never materialize.
Frank also is fair-minded enough to blame the left for its failures as well as the right for its manipulation. At some point, liberalism ceased to have any meaning to these people. Maybe the left was too condescending towards the cultural views of so much of Middle America. Maybe we pushed too strongly for globalization at the expense of the union workers in this country. Whatever the causes, the book is a fascinating study of how we got to our present Red State/Blue State Paradigm