What is the name of the new political book with Kansas in the title?

[searchingforlight]

It is something like We're not in Kansas anymore".

[Orangepeel]

1. What's the Matter with Kansas?

On edit:

What's the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
by Thomas Frank


I haven't read it, but I hear it is good.

[searchingforlight]

2. Thanks. Isn't this place a wealth of information and help?!!!

[wicket]

4. It sure is!

Thank god for DU :)

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805073396/ref=cm_wl_hu_item-added/002-1195735-3789658?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

[robcon]

5. I read a review.

The thesis of the book, apparently, is that working class people don't act in their own economic interest in their voting patterns... that cultural, rather than economic, factors often decide their votes.

Since I think that has ALWAYS been the case, I'm not so sure it's a breakthrough book. Instead of abandoning the premise that people always act in their own economic interest, the author says, in effect, there is something wrong with working class people in the red states.

For me, I'd abandon the premise.

[ChocolateSaltyBalls]

9. There is nothing 'wrong' with the working class people..........

in the 'red states', and that's not what the author says.

That would be like saying that there's something wrong with the anti-war voter who will hold their nose and vote for Kerry in November knowing full well that Kerry will stay engaged in the conflict in Iraq.

Rather than simply dismissing people in the 'red states' as being bad or wrong, the author attempts to explain why they vote the way they do.

[ASanders84]

6. I'm reading it right now

very good. :thumbsup:

[drthais]

7. I am also reading it right now

a harder slog than some of the other
recent political tomes
but well worht the read

I bought this book because I am STILL trying to understand
why on earth blue-collar and poorer people (rural mostly)
would support the Bush administration
or the severely right-wing agenda
that has made its way into the Republican party
being that it is NOT in their interest at all to do so

This book takes one geographical location (Kansas)
and explains how a state that was formerly very progressive
has turned completely around politically

the thesis is that the Republican party
has hijacked the hot-button social issues of the day
claimed them for their own (patriotism, religion, etc)
and then tossed out all economic discussion
so as to blind the right to the fact
that the Republican mindset does not favor
the have-nots in society
in other words, economics is MISSING from the discussion
and thats an important thing to think about

[givemebackmycountry]

8. Check this out...

Go to the PBS website.
Find the link (it's easy) to NOW with Bill Moyers.
Go to the archived show index.
You will find a show featuring the author of this book.
Sit back and watch a fascinating 20 minute conversation that speaks to this book at great length.

It's worth your time!

[robcon]

10. My only point was...

The author makes a thesis that economic interest 'should' trump cultural attitudes in regard to voting. When he finds that not to be the case, he doesn't abandon the thesis, but tries to find some way to maintain the thesis despite the evidence.

[ChocolateSaltyBalls]

11. Actually, no............

Frank doesn't try to maintain that thesis in the face of conflicting evidence, he is more or less giving us a view into the mind of Bush's red state base to help us to see why they continuously vote against their best interests.

He picked Kansas as his focal point because he's from there and he knows the phenomena from the inside out.....he's not writing about it from the outside looking in and trying to figure out what's going on and why.

[IrateCitizen]

12. No, that's not his point at all, really...

Frank's point is that when the Democratic Party made the decision to largely abandon the working class through their abandonment of many of the economic reforms that were championed along class lines starting with the Roosevelt Administration, they no longer gave many working class or rural voters much reason to vote for them. This then allowed the rise of right-wing populism along cultural lines to sway them to vote on cultural issues.

Frank even cites in a recent interview on Alternet.org how many urban and suburban Democrats completely dismiss the working class as unimportant, instead saying that they need to focus on suburban professionals. He also decries the calls for a constant rightward drift by the more corporate-oriented elements of the Democratic Party in order to gain votes as a strategy doomed for failure. He cites Clinton's adoption of NAFTA as a prime example of this, and how the Democrats lost both the House and Senate in the following election.

You can agree or disagree with this analysis (I'm certain you'll choose the latter), but it is basically what Frank is saying explicitly in his interviews and articles.

[Bozita]

13. Bob McChesney interviews Thomas Frank for 1hr -- listen in

http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/mediamatters/default.htm

Scroll down to the June 6 show. Excellent discussion.

Enjoy!