What's The Matter With Kansas

[RetroLounge]

A Must Read!

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?invid=9310136920&quserid=XENITHBS&qtit=kansas&qsort=&page=1



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

Liberal journalist Thomas Frank turns his witty and insightful pen on this nation's gradual drift to the right over the last 30 years of the 20th century, asking "Why?" The conservative movement, once the bastion of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and protected interests now appears to be the people's party, the party of populism, and Frank wants to know how this could have happened. His answer is that conservatives have beaten the drum on issues like abortion, the flag, and religion--"values" that resonate deeply in the heartland. In addition, they have marketed their message, along with a growing rhetoric of rage, through the "pop conservatism" of talk radio. Finally, they have erected a liberal "straw man" against whom they can direct (or in Frank's view misdirect) their unhappiness. He takes a close look at the rise of conservatism in his home state of Kansas, and at the plight of its inhabitants, comparing it with that state's legacy of progressivism and populism. Frank goes on to argue that blue-collar allegiance to conservatism flies in the face of the facts: those who have probably suffered most when conservatives are in power have been those very mainstream Americans who align themselves with the right. This insider's view of the George W. Bush administration draws heavily (but not solely) on former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill as a source. O'Neill, who was asked to step down by Bush in 2002, offers several damning allegations that made headlines upon this book's publication--including charges that Bush was not intellectually engaged at cabinet meetings and that the Bush team had actually made regime change in Iraq one of the first items on its agenda upon assuming office in 2001. A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.


RL

[Rock_Garden]

1. Well, you look at Sam Brownback and you do wonder what's wrong with Kansas.

But we also have Kathleen Sebelius as our governor, so there's hope for us, yet.

[valerief]

2. The nuclear stockpile buried under Kansas soil makes them all crazy, I think. nt