Interview with Thomas Frank, author of What's The Matter with Kansas

[proud2BlibKansan]

His books make Kansan quotable

By STEVE KRASKE The Kansas City Star


What's the matter with Thomas Frank?

Not much, the liberal pundit will tell you.

Not surprisingly, the 39-year-old regular contributor to Harper's and The Nation is working on his fourth book, a follow-up that will discuss how Democrats can roll back the tide.

“I have to,” he said. “I'm in this thing. I feel like I have to come up with something.”


Your book's premise is based on the notion that many Republicans are voting against their own economic interests because they are ultimately motivated by social concerns, such as abortion and gay marriage. But that's really nothing new, because morality as a political driving force runs through Kansas history with Carry Nation and John Brown.

The conservative Republicans understand themselves to be the heirs of that tradition, and in a lot of ways they are. But in other very important ways, they aren't. Certainly John Brown and the populists, there were a lot of utopian reformers back in the 19th century. Those people were politically on the other side from today's conservatives. It's been flipped. That's the fascinating thing.

Couldn't one admire those who vote their moral principles over their pocketbook?

Absolutely. In certain situations that's very honorable. The problem is when you're forgoing your self-interest and the people who are really benefiting from it are already powerful, then it's not an act of bravery and it's not something to be admired. It's something very different.

Democrats are doing a lot of soul-searching right now. What's your advice?

That's what the next book is to be about. They have to rediscover who they are. They have to give up that sort of experiment with Clinton's third way, being Republican-lite, being the other pro-business party. They have to emphasize economic liberalism. The conservatives have done such a good job of cultural populism, I think liberals have to confront that with real populism, and what that means is economic populism.…


Consider Canada on Nov. 3?

No, no. C'mon. All that stuff about going to Canada, that's ridiculous. I was embarrassed for people who were saying things like that. It's not that outrageous that a Republican would win. It's not that strange. The country has been growing more conservative for 36 years now. It's not a new development.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/10701528.htm

[pstans]

1. I liked this part

Couldn't one admire those who vote their moral principles over their pocketbook?

Absolutely. In certain situations that's very honorable. The problem is when you're forgoing your self-interest and the people who are really benefiting from it are already powerful, then it's not an act of bravery and it's not something to be admired. It's something very different.


Umm, I think he wanted to say that it is stupid to vote that way.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. He's a neat guy

and he grew up in my hometown. I am more impressed with him all the time.