Critical Analysis: What's the Matter with Kansas?
In his 2004 text titled What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Hearts of America, Thomas Frank (106) argues that if one takes Kansas as an exemplar of voting patterns in the United States, it is becoming increasingly clear that "working-class heroes are even more Republican than their bosses." In other words, the thesis addressed by Frank throughout his text centers on his contention that (67) that what has caused the Republican Party to enjoy victories at the national, state, and even local levels is that different groups such as "millionaires and trailer-park dwellers, these farmers and thrift-store managers and slaughterhouse workers and utility executives... are almost all Republicans." Class, which once separated members of the Democratic Party from the Republican Party, no longer seems to matter. Frank (67) takes the position that the Republican Party claim to moral values has undermined the appeal of the Democratic Party and its candidates despite that group's superior record on moral issues. With Kansas as his template, Frank (79) paints a broad picture of a radical shift in party allegiance that has led working class individuals who once felt that the Democrats represented their interests to shift
The facts used by Frank (106-110) to explain this transformation include reference not only to the culture wars, but also to the loss of job security (and in many cases the loss of jobs) due to free trade and globalization, other economic issues, and the resurgence of faith-based organizations. Working class Americans in particular are feeling the pinch of policies that advantage minority groups and individuals who do not work. " Here, once again, Frank is indicating that the abandonment of the New Left and traditional liberalism by workers fails is the result of a failure to recognize that a New Economy has been created and that major sociocultural transformations are taking place. While Frank (296) does recognize that the failure of the Democrats to win the hearts and minds of the electorate is as much the fault of the Democrats as it is of the rising numbers of Republicans on the right. It is somewhat more difficult to accept the idea that voters have been hoodwinked into believing that they will be better served by the Republicans than by the Democrats. The American voter does not seem to be in reality quite as poorly educated or uninformed as Frank's book suggests they might be. Additionally, Frank (70) notes that the Republicans have succeeded far more than the Democrats in using the "religion card" to good effect. Kansas is painted as an excellent example of this transformation and as a state which shares much with other states that are largely populated with working class individuals. It is certainly obvious to the serious reader of this book who observed the results of the 2004 presidential election that the Republican "red" states far outnumbered the Democratic "blue" states. Nevertheless, this is an interesting book which at one and the same time identifies voter ignorance and Democratic Party failures as largely responsible for the string of Republican victories that have occurred in recent years. Frank (5) says that "while earlier forms of conservatism emphasized fiscal sobriety, the backlash mobilizes voters with explosive social issues - summoning public outrage over everything from busing to un-Christian art - which it then marries to pro-business economic policies. While the voters may be stupid, the Democrats themselves do not appear to be any brighter. Indeed, Frank (134) believes that while "conservatives are good at pinpointing and magnifying these small but legitimate cultural grievances," they are "wrong about the forces that create the problem. Frank (134) takes the position that the idea "our culture is the way it is simply because liberals have made it so" is lacking in validity but nevertheless is quite appealing to voters in middle-of-the road states such as Kansas. What Frank does not take up in this analysis to any great extent are several other important that may have influenced American voters in recent elections.
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