Why is there a Liberal, Kansas??

[Thor_MN]

From my (very limited, I admit) experience with people from Kansas, I would have to say the town's name is a oxymoron. Apologies to any real liberals in Kansas, you two or three know who you are.

Despite the story of SS Rogers, the first homesteader of the area who gave away water free, I think that the name is no longer very descriptive. Wouldn't Conservative, Kansas or Regressive, Kansas be more apropos?

[atommom]

1. Oh, there are more than 2 or 3, even just here on DU.

Here's a bit of Liberal history. (Kansas was once known as a progressive state, you know, and a number of us are working on making it that way again.)


The year was 1872 and western Kansas consisted of mile after mile of waving prairie grasslands and one large, flowering river. Settlers traveling west on the Santa Fe, Jones and Plummer, and western cattle trails simply passed through thinking this area "uninhabitable". But one undaunted man, making his way west, did stop and settle. Mr. S.S. Rogers was the first homesteader in what would later become Liberal. Outside of the Cimarron River, water was very scarce in Southwestern Kansas and there was usually a charge for even a small amount; howerver Mr. Rogers always gave his water free to passing travelers. Quite often he would hear a reply of "that's mighty Liberal of you" from the grateful recipients.

By 1885 Mr. Rogers had opened a general store and the government established an official Post Office. It seemed only natural to call the new town "LIBERAL".

http://www.liberal.net/info/history.html

[Montauk6]

2. Only because you're probably gonna get an earful...

:popcorn:

[atommom]

3. You got a problem with that?

:hi: :popcorn:

[Montauk6]

5. Hey, I was just warning Thor

My name is Wes, and I ain't IN this mess!

[MADem]

4. Cruel joke, perhaps?

When will they incorporate the municipality of Choice, South Dakota? Or Gayville, Alabama?

[hfojvt]

18. Hey, there IS a Gayville, SD

It is between Yankton and Vermillion! :bounce:

[proud patriot]

26. My husband's brother lives in Gayville, SD

:hi:

[movonne]

6. Kansas and Ohio are two messed up states...I don't know anyone

that lives in these states and maybe it is a good thing...for the handful of liberals that live there, it must be lonely..

[atommom]

8. No, we're too freakin' busy to get lonely.

[movonne]

9. I can only imagine...

[sui generis]

13. I have a cousin who is out in a long term relationship

and has been since she was 16, and myself with an SO going on a decade, who bring our SO's to our "conservative" family reunion every year, and neither of us have ever had a problem - in fact I am this years "patron" for the family reunion.

Beloit, Kansas -- all multi-generation farmers; there are a few new people who are startled at first, but after they see that we're not any different than they are (plus SO comes from a farm family and was a Navy Lt Cdr on the Enterprise) the only thing they care about is that we're happy and "traditional" about our families, which in the end has nothing to do with sexual orientation and everything to do with caring about who and where you are in life.

You have to shoot first and ask permission later. Real "Conservatives" take about ten seconds to figure out what's important about being a conservative. My SO and I have never asked for permission - we know where we come from, and if we don't have a problem with it nobody else should. It helps that the "old timers" (our parents & uncles/aunts) and our sibs act as if there is nothing out of the ordinary set the tone, but beyond that I would still claim my family whether they liked it or not.

The other thing that helps is that fake conservatives are sheep. They'll follow whatever everyone else is doing. If the "majority" is ok with it, they'll be ok with it too. Maybe some day they'll grow up and learn to think for themselves, but until then, we'll just continue to provide positive examples.

[FooFootheSnoo]

17. Oh my gosh!!

I'm from Beloit. I grew up there. It's a nice town. I used to hang at the Rainbow Tavern!! They can't be too homophobic with a bar named that can they?

Kansas might be conservative, but the people there are much better neighbors than Floridians. I'm not trying to bash Florida, it's a beautiful state, maybe I've just met a lot of bad people here. At least in Kansas, there is a sense of community, here there is none.

[MADem]

50. I think the strong probability is that they were going for the Wizard of

Oz reference in naming that place--Somewhere Over the Rainbow....Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

Of course, they might have never anticipated that Judy Garland would become an icon of sorts for a branch of the gay community....

[hfojvt]

20. 434,973 Kerry voters in 2004

a mere 36.62% of the electorate it is true. In 2000 Nader got 36,086 votes in Kansas 3.37% of the electorate.
OTOH, there were 866,831 Bush voters in Oregon in 2004.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Well don't count on being invited to come visit.

[huskerlaw]

7. I actually know

THREE liberals...from Liberal, Kansas. :)

[SPKrazy]

10. My Episcopal Priest Used To Live There

and was rector at a parish there.

He is very liberal and most of his congregation there was too.

[SPKrazy]

12. From The Kansas Sec. Of State

Seward Co. (Liberal's county) Kansas:

Seward 2,284 59 13 5,889 2,551 10,796

It had a county by county report of the 04 elections, but it was in Excel, and I have $%##@ Quatro on my computer and couldn't open it.

http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_statistics.html

link to Kansas SOC

[Critters2]

41. Kansas used to be quite liberal

It was largely settled by New Englanders who went there at the time of the Missouri Compromise to keep Kansas a free state. Lawrence, KS is named for Lawrence, MA. a lot of Kansans were killed by Qantrill's raiders because of their opposition to slavery. Until recently, Kansas had a proud, progressive history.

I recommend Thomas Franks' book _What's the Matter with Kansas?_.

[MuseRider]

11. Oh I don't know.

A good reason for people to feel better about themselves by being assholes about it?

Nevermind. I don't fucking care anymore. Ya wanna be stoopid then just go right ahead.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. I don't fucking care either

but I sure will jump into these Kansas bashing threads. It's my duty as a Jayhawk!! :woohoo:

[Davis_X_Machina]

14. Check out Normal, Illinois n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Or Peculiar, MO

[ktlyon]

33. been there done that

for a Dead concert
I once lived in Fairway Kansas

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. I live right down the road from Fairway

:hi:

[Critters2]

39. That's where I went to college!

and, really, it was pretty normal. But it was named for the university, which was originally the "Illinois Normal College" an old term for a teacher's college.

[catmandu57]

15. Like the rest of the country Kansas

used to be a pretty decent place to live a lifetime or so back. It's cyclical, things won't be dark forever.

[MuseRider]

16. It still is.

I will have to be dead before I "move" from Kansas.

[depakid]

19. It would be funnier if there were a Darwin, Kansas

What would some of the townsfolk think then? Guess we'll have to leave that one to the Ozzies.

[liberalitch]

21. philestine, kansas....

proud home of knuckle-draggers and homophobes

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. This is really getting old

Go trash your own state.

:puke:

[MuseRider]

28. Hey Proud!

Ya wanna go trash other states with me? We could pick one a week and just give them hell about all the terrible, awful things about them and then we could like walk around with our chests stuck out and everything and be really, really cool and stuff! Ya, I like that idea, we could be really cool if we did that. Wanna do that?

:eyes:

I think this is about the third one this week for us.

I think that everyone here on DU from Kansas is way too busy working for liberal values, I know I am putting in several hours a day, some days a lot more than that. Still, I really might feel a lot better if I went around and told everyone else how much they suck. Hmmmmm.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Sounds like a plan

Let's start with MO. I'm pissed off at the idiots in Jeff City anyway. Damn Ozark hillbillies.

Branson is soooo boring anyway.

[MuseRider]

30. Ohhhh I have too many friends there

but I guess we could always use the over used lines of....I pity the poor liberals there OR except for the DUers from there OR man it must be lonely there OR it really must suck there.

Egads, that accent in southern Missouri, YIKES....except for the DUers there of course.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. And don't forget SW MO is fundie central

Blunt country.

Then there is Rush country on the other end of the state - SE MO. The idiot who wants to make Xianity the official religion is from SE MO. He's the same asshole who wrote that anti abortion referendum.

[MuseRider]

34. It is a beautiful

state though. I love parts of it and we have some very good DUers from there so I just can't bring myself to say any more. It has it's problems (like EVERYWHERE) and actually it and some of the other states are taking a little bit of the pressure off of us right now so I really thought I would not see so many Kansas bashing threads. Did you see the post earlier about Mainstream taking this Christianity issue on? If not I will find it for you.

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. Yes but let's kick that thread again

[MuseRider]

38. Done.

Go give it a kick, it was far too important to go so quickly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=622118

[atommom]

44. Damn, I'm late to the party.

I did so want to tell somebody they sucked... :(

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. Go right ahead

No one is stopping you! LOL

[RoyGBiv]

27. ::sigh::

I'd tell you, but I suspect actually knowing isn't the point here.

There's Google. Answers await the genuinely curious.

[MuseRider]

32. How about that!

You learn something new every day. I did not know that and I have been here my entire life. All I really knew was about the gas there and the pancake race.

Yeah, it really wasn't the point but then it never ever is.

[RoyGBiv]

37. What's funny ...

...not funny ha-ha, but funny anyway is that "questions" and comments like these can lead to really interesting bits of information if one cares actually to look for it. I was genuinely curious about this myself some time ago, so I looked. It took, oh, about 30 seconds, and I didn't have to make one disparaging remark to do it. Funny.

If we wanted to get really geeky about this -- and I'm always one for wallowing in a full-on geek-fest -- the history of Liberal, Kansas, in particular its naming, highlights the *fact* that the term "liberal" once had a universally positive connotation, i.e. "generous." The always backward-looking, uncaring, selfish stick-in-the-muds started perverting the language even before Orwell wrote and described the process; that's the reason he wrote what he did.

Anyway ...

[MuseRider]

40. LOL geek away!

I can't keep up with the geek fests but that does not mean I do not appreciate them for what they are, informative.

If left to myself or in a room with like minded people I can get really wonky, drives some people nuts but it has driven me to do modest but good work.

Kansas is making noise but mostly it is noise only we hear. So far this year is good but it is not because we are lonely or to be pitied, it is because we saw what we had to do and we went for it. I think the effort is commendable, even if nobody knows about it.

YAY Kansas, a once populist state, now suffering from enormous amounts of spin and isolation but we are trying.

[lies and propaganda]

42. Liberal Oklahoma as well

and thats just as mind boggling.

[RoyGBiv]

46. Where?

I know where Gotebo and Gerty are, and if you want to talk absurd, I've driven through Mountain View, but I've never heard of Liberal, OK.

[Nicole]

49. It's not listed on my Oklahoma map

I guess that's why I've never heard of it.

[Telly Savalas]

43. My wife went to high school in Liberal, Kansas.

I'm guessing she's a lot more intelligent than you, so fuck off with this tiresome bullshit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. Thank you Telly

[MuseRider]

48. Oh ha ha ha ha

Wow, that is beautiful! :huh: