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What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

Thomas Frank

3.85 · Rating details · 11,568 ratings · 762 reviews

With a New Afterword by the Author

The New York Times bestseller, praised as "hilariously funny . . . the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political interests" (Molly Ivins)

Hailed as "dazzlingly insightful and wonderfully sardonic" (Chicago Tribune), "very funny and very painful" (San Francisco Chronicle), and

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Paperback, 332 pages

Published May 1st 2005 by Picador USA (first published January 1st 2004)

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Jan 04, 2012 Kristen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, make-you-put-a-gun-in-your-mouth, own

In the last year I’ve started on a half a dozen books all claiming to explain the marriage of social conservatism and capitalism, this being the second I’ve actually managed to finish (the others written either by some criminally insane conservative whose lunatic ravings caused me to vomit in my mouth by page five or liberals whose smug sense of superiority was palpable.) This one at least was enjoyable, I suppose, yet somewhere about a third of the way in I realized the utter pointlessness of e In the last year I’ve started on a half a dozen books all claiming to explain the marriage of social conservatism and capitalism, this being the second I’ve actually managed to finish (the others written either by some criminally insane conservative whose lunatic ravings caused me to vomit in my mouth by page five or liberals whose smug sense of superiority was palpable.) This one at least was enjoyable, I suppose, yet somewhere about a third of the way in I realized the utter pointlessness of expecting one liberal to explain to another, not simply how the Republican party has managed to conflate capitalism and Jesus, but how so many have been taken in by it. The author’s personal biography, following the fortune of his hometown, is rather interesting yet in the end I don’t feel that I walked away with much more understanding. Thomas Frank's strongest argument is simply that the Democrats, in an effort to 'appeal to business', have turned their backs on the unions and working class that have historically supported them, in effect removing economic issues from the debate entirely, leaving only superficial social issues for voters to consider. Yet for me, Frank still doesn't satisfactorily explain the disconnect in today's Tea Party Republicans other than to point out:

"American conservatism depends for its continued dominance and even for its very existence on people never making certain mental connections about the world, connections that where until recently treated as obvious or self-evident everywhere on the planet. For example, the connection between mass culture, most of which conservatives hate, and laissez-faire capitalism, which they adore without reservation. Or between the small towns they profess to love and the market forces that are slowly grinding those small towns back into red-state dust-which forces they praise in the most exalted terms."

After this book I realize the utter pointlessness of looking for a rational answer where one simple doesn't exist, and I doubt I will be reading more books of this type. Still, I feel obligated to give this four stars simply for being ahead of the curve since this was written long before anyone had ever heard of Obama or the Tea Party. ...more

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Apr 18, 2017 Trish rated it liked it

Shelves: america, nonfiction, psychology, quirky, skimmed, history, horror, immigration, midwest, political-science

Thomas Frank makes a good deal of sense if one can listen long enough to hear his thesis. But he is his own worst enemy, providing story after statistic to describe Kansas voting for conservatives against their own best interests. His arguments are extreme and unsettling. You’d think Kansas was the most unholy place on earth with pollution, unemployment, and immigrant slave labor, but actually conservatives have only slowly been crushing the lifeblood out of the state. This last election voted 6 ...more

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Jul 12, 2008 Michael rated it it was ok

Shelves: politics

Holy cow I hated this book.

This was really an unpleasant experience, I’m glad it’s over. I read the book because I am moving to Kansas and figured it would be a useful introduction to the state’s political dynamic. I was expecting an analysis that I would likely not be very sympathetic to, but I was still disappointed. The book is not so much analysis as explanation -- explanation as to what is going on in flyover country, from the perspective of a committed, doctrinaire, old school liberal. The Holy cow I hated this book.

This was really an unpleasant experience, I’m glad it’s over. I read the book because I am moving to Kansas and figured it would be a useful introduction to the state’s political dynamic. I was expecting an analysis that I would likely not be very sympathetic to, but I was still disappointed. The book is not so much analysis as explanation -- explanation as to what is going on in flyover country, from the perspective of a committed, doctrinaire, old school liberal. The book is not intended to win converts, it is a sermon meant only for the choir.

The book’s thesis is that blue collar workers have been duped into voting for conservatives against their economic interests. Conservatives have accomplished this by resorting to cultural wedge issues, leading the gullible masses like the Pied Piper to their own financial destruction. The author does not waste a moment’s energy explaining why liberal economic policies are better for workers than conservative policies. In typically liberal fashion, he just proceeds from that assumption, believing that to be so self-evident that his entire premise can be built upon it beginning at page 1, as though it were a proven law of physics like gravity that would be absurd to even take the time to demonstrate. The book is not meant to explain liberal economic theory. It is intended to explain to devotees of liberal economic theory why blue collar workers in Kansas and other places are voting with the Republican Party that is selling them out to corporations (another Copernican principle).

In reality, the whole book is a portrait of one man’s cognitive dissonance. He caricatures conservative leaders as fire-breathing rageaholics that gain power by ignoring economic issues and convincing rural rubes that America is going to hell in a handbasket. Yet the author’s entire premise is that America is going to hell in a handbasket, and his tone seethes with anger from cover to cover. He sounds like fellow Chicagoan Michelle Obama (the author long ago fled the land he loves so much) when he says, “In its implacable bitterness, Kansas….is where America finds that its soul….has gone all sour and wrong.” (p. 36) But with a straight face, he insists over and over and over again that conservatives are the ones peddling grievance and loathing for what America has become. Conservatives are the ones selling anger, and they are the ones that demonize their opponents as Nazis. Of course, anyone who has turned on a television in the last eight years and watched the hysterical left burn Bush/Cheney in effigy (Bush is Hitler, Digital Brownshirts, etc. etc.) will wonder who is being delusional.

One of his core arguments is that a favorite and effective trick of conservatives is to caricature liberals as east coast snobs that cannot comprehend the values of middle America. Yet the entire book is essentially an indictment of rural and blue collar workers in middle America voting illogically and buying conservative snake oil to their own detriment – in other words, we have a fancy, educated, big city book-writing type mocking the idea that middle Americans are scorned by his kind, while in the same breath he is scorning them for their values and for the lunacy they subscribe to. Hmmm….

Then there are the laughable moments, like when, in a litany of egregious acts perpetrated by conservatives, he speaks of denying women the right to vote (apparently a female legislator spoke sympathetically of this concept) and selling the Kansas Turnpike in the same breathe. Of course, when a person exalts the economic above all else and belittles the concerns of “values voters,” as the author does, a person might find these two ideas equally sinister. His complete and utter incomprehension of why people might protest the abortion industry is almost flaunted (he refers to trucks bearing pictures of broken fetuses in protest of abortion as being representative of the “dark side” of Wichita, without apparently even considering that the gruesome late-term abortions being performed there against the will of the majority might be the dark side! p. 57)

The author tries to separate himself from other liberal diatribes, but in the end he can’t resist falling back on the tired old polemics that the left has employed to such great success for 40 years. Here’s a newsflash: conservatives are racist! After making a halfhearted attempt to deny that this is the case, that there is in fact something else going on here, he just can’t help himself. Reagan, Bush, Gingrich, etc. are all spoken of in the same breath as George Wallace. He makes a valiant attempt to chart a different course from the liberal boilerplate, but like a moth to the flame, he cannot help himself and in the end surrenders.

Whether it’s citing Elliot Spitzer approvingly or claiming that gay marriage is an “illusory threat” (because it is already illegal), this book should not be read as a reliable guide of things to come. It is really just a bunch of crazy anecdotes about crazy people doing and saying crazy things (which proves so much), but it is all in service of a single idea – and that idea is “the borderline criminality of capitalism itself.” (p. 47). Does he explain why? No. Why would he? Does he explain why the sun is yellow? It just is, and everyone knows it is. Corporate Republicans understand the insidious nature of the market better than anyone, that is why they tolerate crazy conservatives – their insanity allows rich men to control the means of production and exploit the proletariat. And conservative values are little more than the opium of the people.

In substance, “What’s the Matter with Kansas” is little more than a latter-day Marx reader. In style it is pure screed. The author is apparently angry that the United States has experienced the greatest era of prosperity in history over the last 25 years. He is angry that when he visits Kansas from Chicago, things don’t look the same as they did when he is a kid.

I’m angry too. I just spent valuable time reading “Kansas for Dummies.” ...more

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Jan 26, 2008 Belarius rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Americans And Others Curious About America

Shelves: nonfiction-finished, politics, reviewed

Simply put, "What's The Matter With Kansas?" in its latest (paperback) edition, is a book every politically active American should read. What its author, Thomas Frank, lacks in terms of tone (the book is likely to offend some) he overcomes with an incredibly clear-sighted appraisal of the ideological framework of modern conservatives and, to an extent, of America in general.

Frank's opening thesis is that the "new conservatives" that sprang from the 1990s represent a seeming paradox: the poor fur Simply put, "What's The Matter With Kansas?" in its latest (paperback) edition, is a book every politically active American should read. What its author, Thomas Frank, lacks in terms of tone (the book is likely to offend some) he overcomes with an incredibly clear-sighted appraisal of the ideological framework of modern conservatives and, to an extent, of America in general.

Frank's opening thesis is that the "new conservatives" that sprang from the 1990s represent a seeming paradox: the poor further impoverishing themselves by electing politicians who place corporate interests over the economic interests of individuals. This support is, as he describes it, passionate and raging:

"This situation may be paradoxical, but it is also universal. For decades, Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting. In Kansas we merely see an extreme version of this mysterious situation. The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their fists at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawoof toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while the millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. 'We are here,' they scream, 'to cut your taxes.' "

The ideological phenomenon Frank proceeds to unfold explains how a popular, grassroots movement could act so strikingly against its own interests: what he calls "backlash culture." The basic notion is that, faced with apparent legislative and cultural meddling from a vast and nebulous world of "liberal elites," working-class Americans across the heartland have taken to believing that economic forces are wholly distinct from cultural forces, and that America's problems are the result of cultural and spiritual (rather than, for example, economic) malaise. The economic disconnect is key:

"At the center of it all is a way of thinking about class that both encourages class hostility of the kind we see in Kansas and simultaneously denies the economic basis of the grievance. Class, conservatives insist, is not really about money or birth or even occupation. It is primarily a matter of authenticity, that most valuable cultural commodity. Class is about what one drives and where one shops and how one prays, and only secondarily about the work one does or the income one makes. What makes one a member of the noble proletariat is not work per se, but unpretentiousness, humility, and the rest of the qualities that our punditry claim to spy in the red states that voted for George W. Bush."

The problem, as Frank reiterates in countless forms, is the indignant scorn of the common folk for the sophisticated intellectuals they believe hold society's strings. In every trigger issue (from guns to abortion to evolution), the far right sees its way of life under siege by a pseudo-conspiracy of elite manipulation, and in its efforts to rebuke that elite it has embraced politicians whose first priority is evidently supporting corporate America. This shift to the right is not merely a shift away from the Democrats to the Republicans: it is also a bitter conflict within the Republican party, as the moderate "elite" have come under fire by grassroots ultraconservative candidates.

By the time the book reaches its final point (namely, how Democrats let their base slip away), Frank has already connected the dots, such that we can anticipate the result: The "New Democrats" (both in the Clinton era and in the 2004 election) have chosen to court the center (and, especially, to court corporate America), and in so doing have turned their back on the blue-collar folk who were once their strongest supporters. This betrayal, Frank asserts, is as much a factor as the persuasive rhetoric of the conservatives themselves.

Broadly, the book is brilliant. While Frank makes a strong argument for why (and how) many conservatives will reject his ideas, he nevertheless seems to strive to write in terms that might resonate with them and bring in to question the rhetoric in the way that he (a pro-Reagan youth) once did. Frank's tone is sometimes (perhaps even often) pejorative, but that venom appears largely confined to the many, many hypocrites who play a part in the story. He shows a great deal of snarl, for example, when describing the myriad talking heads of the modern conservative establishment (many of whom could only be described as "upper crust" were it not for their adoption of backlash culture). When describing the "true conservatives" with whom he speaks (the grassroots campaign workers, the part-time activists, and so forth), he shows more warmth and sympathy.

More importantly, this book should be required reading for any left-leaning American who thinks they "understand" the right. Frank presents a sufficiently comprehensive insight into the far right that it becomes much easier to empathize with the sizable segment of America it now represents. Seeped in considerable history (showing, for example, the surprisingly leftist origins of many modern conservative tactics, as well as describing the radical left wing of 19th century Kansas) and apportioned with hefty endnotes, the book is a powerful argument for how we got where we are. ...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Connie Kuntz rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Connie by: Jesse Kuntz

Thomas Frank, a Kansas native and former conservative, actually does manage to thoughtfully and fairly answer the title question "What's The Matter With Kansas?" He also does explain how conservatives won the heart of America. More importantly, in my opinion, he got me to analyze why I feel the politics I feel and, ultimately, vote the way I vote. His book has a marvelous way of balancing emotion and logic in political rhetoric. Because of that, I consider this book one of beautiful, swift polit Thomas Frank, a Kansas native and former conservative, actually does manage to thoughtfully and fairly answer the title question "What's The Matter With Kansas?" He also does explain how conservatives won the heart of America. More importantly, in my opinion, he got me to analyze why I feel the politics I feel and, ultimately, vote the way I vote. His book has a marvelous way of balancing emotion and logic in political rhetoric. Because of that, I consider this book one of beautiful, swift political prose. I read it twice.

The books is excellent, but truly hits its stride after page 100 or so, especially when he discusses "Plen-T-plaint." Frank defines Plen-T-plaint as "a curious amassing of petty, unrelated beefs with the world. Its purpose is not really to evaluate the hated liberal culture that surrounds us; the plen-T-plaint is a horizontal rather than a vertical mode of criticism, aiming instead to infuriate us with dozens, hundreds, thousands of stories of the many tiny ways the world around us assaults family values, uses obscenities, disrespects parents, foments revolution, and so on. Plen-T-plaint winds us up. It offers no resolution, simply reminding us that we can never win. The plen-T-plaint is the rhetorical device that makes Bill O'Reilly's TV show a hit...."

The author is able to discuss several of the "hot button" topics (you know the ones: abortion, homosexuality, war, religion, taxes, etc.) that drive the political races without, and here is the beauty, getting emotional, divisive and sanctimonious. Instead, he points out the beauty of the topics and their relevance to the interests of top government officials. Brilliant.

Frank writes with energy. In many ways, his work reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell. His analysis is exciting, well thought out and backed up with tons of research. Similar to my "process" with reading Gladwell, I read and enjoyed the footnotes as well as the text.

Finally, I would like to mention that I have always wondered, "Am I really a liberal?" The answer is YES, but I have truly always wondered why because I have never related to (or appreciated) liberal characters on TV, in film, in theatre, or in the paper.

This book helped me understand why very quickly.

It's because the money (Neo-Conservatives) own not only the news, but the entertainment industry as well. It is the Money (not the liberals) who ultimately shape the way society thinks liberals look and behave. It is the Money who ultimately chooses who the stars are. No wonder I have never related to the liberal characters on tv, in film, in music, on the radio (radio shows) or even in theatre. This is something I will think about for a long time.

This book explains how not-so-subtly the entertainment industry undermines and insults the working class at all levels, including the populist sect to the proletariat class.

The sections on Media Spin and entertainment industry standards and guidelines opened my eyes so much. Of course I already knew the media was controlled by the corporations, but I never realized just how much influence that money really has. It's not liberals who fund the newspapers or the entertainment industry. Nope.

Anyway, this is a terrific book. It is a fair analysis of many aspects of politics. It is not as "left" as the title suggests. I would love to read a book like this about Rockford and all of Illinois.

...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Aaron rated it did not like it

Hating this book would be like hating cancer: Raging won't make it go away or succor those who have been damaged by it.

But it is well worth repeating the fact that this is a deeply stupid book, smug and vicious and unapologetic on both counts.

To say that Frank is preaching to the choir is insulting to preachers, who by and large seem sincerely interested in persuading their charges, and choirs, who by and large seem to sing from a place of joy and compassion. Rather, Frank begins with a hateful Hating this book would be like hating cancer: Raging won't make it go away or succor those who have been damaged by it.

But it is well worth repeating the fact that this is a deeply stupid book, smug and vicious and unapologetic on both counts.

To say that Frank is preaching to the choir is insulting to preachers, who by and large seem sincerely interested in persuading their charges, and choirs, who by and large seem to sing from a place of joy and compassion. Rather, Frank begins with a hateful conclusion and raises begging the question to arrogant new heights.

You see, Kansans (and, by proxy, other Midwestern red staters) are dumb, have been conned by eeeeeevil Republicans peddling anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-tolerance snake oil and are voting against their own economic interests. These interests, which naturally he gets to define, because heaven forbid people should get to define their own, are of course those of the Democratic party and/or the modern Progressive movement. Why? Well, dearest, because he says so, that's why. Proving, or even providing evidence for, such a thing would be beneath him.

Let us forget, for the sake of discussion, that Kansas has actually done fairly well economically on most counts. That isn't relevant to Frank's argument, because he's not interested in facts.

What he has constructed instead is a vast argumentum ad anecdotum, which is not a real thing as far as I know, but it would assuredly be funnier if it had just been made up by a smart liberal like Frank. Anything can be made to appear true if you are selective enough with your anecdotes. This is how we know that the Chiefs have a great football team this year, because we saw that highlight of their quarterback making one great throw.

There is little point debating the merits of Frank's argument, such as it is, because he isn't interested in debating it, either. To him, it just is, he just knows it the way you know that big, hot, orangey thing is going to come up in the sky every morning and I know that cauliflower is made of pure evil. And many people who loved this book loved it before they read a word, because they already thought we Kansans are rubes and fools and parochial little bigots.

Happily, the world and this little corner of it are more interesting and nuanced (and considerably less tethered to hallucinatory idiocy) than the imaginary one of Frank's venomous fever dream. The real world is not divided into opposing camps of people who agree with him and people who are stupid.

I don't think that I am stupid (surely my mom would not lie to me about that!), but then again I suspected the truth about this book and read it anyway. I don't think that Frank is stupid (I have no idea what his mom thinks), but then again he wrote this book without bothering to check to see if any of it was true.

So instead of what might have been--a thoughtful, fair piece on why the red states are red--we get this rabid mutt, spraying foam and signaling from page one that it's going to bite any hand extended to it, even if extended in the hope of finding common ground.

In conclusion, if I may paraphrase the title: “What's the Matter With Our Culture?” The answer: this book. We come to our debates as if they are fights to the death, prepared to give no quarter, even if most of the collateral damage is to all the sad little facts who lined up to watch, naively hoping they would be of use to someone on one side or another. ...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Darlene rated it liked it

Although my political views are left of center, I approached this book with great curiosity and an open mind. I was hoping to understand what makes a group of people vote against their own political and economic interests. However, I didn't come away from this book really learning the answer to that question. Mr. Frank, a native Kansan, wrote a very interesting book about his very colorful home state. He talked about conservative voters voting their values.... I understand that. I feel I vote u ...more

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Oct 26, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-history, brain-candy, nonfiction

Frank looks at Kansas as a prime example of how the Republican Party has convinced working people to vote against their own economic self-interest by using so-called wedge issues. It is compelling analysis.

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Jun 12, 2008 Nicholas rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: people interested in politics, all liberals

A remarkably account of the development of "backlash" politics in the microcosm of Kansas. Thomas Frank asks himself why working-class people would vote against their economic interests to put the Republicans (Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2) in power, when it would make much more sense to vote for liberals who would improve their educational options and increase progressive taxation. Put simply—why do poor American vote to lower the taxes on the rich? The answer is a little more complicated than this, b ...more

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Oct 02, 2007 Jesse rated it liked it

Recommends it for: people who already read a lot of pop culture political theory.

Eh. I don't know about this one. I think it has some good points and insights as to how people living in middle America see the conservative movement as relating to their self interest even when decisions made by that movement are somewhat against their self interest. At the same time I feel like this analysis "others" middle America and assumes something is "the matter" with Kansas as opposed to assuming that perhaps something is wrong with progressive messaging that is not connecting with many ...more

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May 21, 2008 keith koenigsberg rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

A scathing polemic diatribe, this book discusses how the conservatives have won the hearts and minds of a state which, by any of the author's yardsticks, ought to vote liberal. Frank is preaching to choir with me. However, even as I sit on his side of the fence, I could not help but fault this book for a)lack of humor (the tone is as screechingly accusatory as any of the conservative pundits he enjoys bashing) b)lack of economic, scientific, or other logical background. He sets up the chapters w ...more

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Nov 29, 2007 Moxie rated it did not like it

Shelves: these-suck-read-at-your-own-risk

I know this is supposed to be a great book, but, as a Kansan, I had a hard time getting past Thomas Frank's apparent bitterness about all things Kansas. Its an interesting assessment as to how Kansas got so Red. However, things have been changing significantly in this state over the last few elections so its no longer very insightful about the current state of Kansas politics. ...more

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Jul 13, 2015 sologdin rated it it was ok

Shelves: leftwing-polemical

Posits the existence of a “Great Backlash,” a derangement that is the return of “a style of conservatism that first came snarling onto the national stage in response to the partying and protests of the late sixties” (5). It is apparently “like the French Revolution in reverse” (8): “sans culottes pour down the streets demanding more power for the aristocracy.” The central problem:

Strip them of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and

...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Katie rated it it was ok

I learned early on that reading the opinion pages of the newspaper was just spitting into the wind. You get so fed up to the point that you have to do something about it, and then you end up making it worse. Much of "What's the Matter with Kansas" was a play-by-play rehashing of the news stories that have helped make Kansas the laughing stock of the nation. While I find Frank's concept of "cultural backlash" interesting, it still doesn't answer the question of "why do rural people continue to el ...more

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Jul 05, 2007 Sheffy rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: Democratic partisans

Shelves: aborted

While I agree with the general hypothesis of this book that the Republican coup is to generate "social" wedge issues to get the "heartland" to vote against it's economic best interest, this book is a partisan editorial rant that lacks true scholarship and authenticity (despite footnotes). Althouh it is entertainingly written, I couldn't get through it. ...more

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Dec 27, 2017 Jeanette rated it it was ok

This is extremely dated, but nevertheless is high pulpit preaching to the choir. He redefines and redefines. He explains his own cause and effect beliefs more than he frames realities for those people he defines.

He is not completely wrong in any cultural wars sense of comparisons, but at the same time with all his adjective and practices home population descriptions, he doesn't really understand identity or self-identity of the voter bases all that much. Furthermore, he quite adequately describe This is extremely dated, but nevertheless is high pulpit preaching to the choir. He redefines and redefines. He explains his own cause and effect beliefs more than he frames realities for those people he defines.

He is not completely wrong in any cultural wars sense of comparisons, but at the same time with all his adjective and practices home population descriptions, he doesn't really understand identity or self-identity of the voter bases all that much. Furthermore, he quite adequately describes The GREAT Backlash without understanding its core himself. Because he, himself, only sees it as against the voters' own self interests according to his own economic theory bias.

This has some interesting moments to the telling of Kansas in particular. But coming from a Blue Midwest State myself, I can honestly say he is nearly 75% wrong about/for the results of the 2000 plus years having to do with the practical applications for his elected Democrats and liberals record; what they have DONE to/for the worker of "norm" (by his own definitions of non-elite). As if his theory of economics has worked out to benefit them at any time in the last 25 years. It has not.

He defines Populist with the big P as coming out of leftist politics. And with the small p more of an uneven lowest culture here and gone for a one issue politics kind of deal. Hmmm?? Populism can run other directions and be quite different in different eras, IMHO. He doesn't begin to ascribe it adequately.

This was NOT enjoyable to read. Nor was it timely. It has some truths, but their applications to culture wars and to the economics he believes are sacrosanct truth? NOPE! Talk to most any UAW or smaller present day Union worker in IL. Let them tell you how all that Democrat Party support in the past has worked out for them in the last 20 years. Or what Union hierarchies have done to their own members too in many cases.

He's correct about some key button issues (abortion especially) but doesn't understand the full applications for being ridiculed in "better" cultural mores glib style. He just merely glimpses the tip of the iceberg in that regard. Americans are far more loyal to their home place, religion, and believing what they see, rather than what they hear preached at them. Not only in Kansas either.

This book will not win any converts to his Progressive Liberal cause. In fact, even to some central Plains Americans that are partially in that pull for some few economic or social basis issues and at a more even time (2017) would always call themselves Independent or neutral in their economics of "it's either us or the evil rich" - this book would repulse them back the opposite direction.

At points he owns the exactly precise kind of snark that "the folks" find so repulsive. Off-putting and snobby, with name call context. The more the Media and the authors (quite like this one) exhibit this constant habit of ridicule and sarcasm, the more their theories and "truths" will be rejected. It's only my opinion. But he never once addresses the Progressive messaging methods. And respect matters. ...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Sean Sullivan rated it really liked it

This book has got to be one of the most read (or at least most discussed) political commentary texts of the last ten years. It seems like everyone I know is familiar with the thesis – that Kansas is an example of what is strange (and Frank thinks, wrong) about American electoral politics – people will vote against their economic interests if they think such voting is in line with their moral concerns. So, though the Republican party shits all over working class people, they will continue to vote ...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Marti Garlett rated it really liked it

This book is fascinating, but I also expect will be debunked by most Kansans. I'm not a Kansan, but my husband is, and I lived there for 15 years plus four years of undergraduate experience. One of my two sons was born in Kansas; both of them were raised there. The author is a Kansan, ergo, giving him more credibility in addition to his massive research. This is a meticulously detailed tome that demonstrates that it us true conservatives consistently vote against their own self interests, includ ...more

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Sep 04, 2014 Keith rated it really liked it

This was a sort of guide to understanding conservative thinking, and it was really good. A bit dated (I think it was written in 2005?) but spot on when describing the mentality that eventually shattered the Republican party and metastasized into the diseased thing we call 'conservatism' today. While completely relevant to 2014, I'm not sure what exactly the book evokes more for the reader, contempt or pity for the 'backlash' conservatives he describes here. Either way, it was depressing to learn ...more

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Nov 17, 2016 Bren rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, political-non-fiction, educational, social-issues, read-and-reviewed, historical

"Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, in which workers have been stripped of power and CEOs are rewarded in a manner beyond imagining.”
― Thomas Frank, What's the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

It is not just Kansas that is discussed here. It is a book that really offers some serious insight
into different parts of the country and why we all vote as we do.

Alot of books ...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Peter rated it did not like it

Shelves: awful

What utter nonsense! I would give this no stars if I could. Extremism on either end of the political spectrum does not make for an interesting book. Mr. Frank seems to think that one party is better than the other one, and that anyone who voted for that evil party has somehow been deceived, should have their heads examined, or has fallen under the spell of some kind of nefarious plot to take over the world.

I suppose some people enjoy polemic arguments like this, but they so often become boring ...more

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Jan 11, 2014 Ned rated it it was amazing

The most autobiographical from one of the preeminent spokespersons for the economics of capitalism and (surprisingly) pop culture. This tells of his youth and intellectual development and, ultimately, seeks to understand his fellow man's inexplicable support of policies that harm him. Or such is his position. This is highly readable and will stimulate your thinking! Frank's writes a monthly page in Harper's magazine that is always fresh and provocative. ...more

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Dec 15, 2016 Olivia "So many books--so little time."" rated it it was amazing

It provided an excellent explanation as to why right-wing nutjobs are so prevalent in the hinterlands.

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Dec 13, 2017 Patty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, read-in-2017

A nonfiction book attempting to explain the upswing in conservative voters in the midwest and other rural areas. It's a bit out of date; it was published only in 2004 but things change fast in the politics game. Nonetheless, this book is pretty amazingly prescient; a lot of his discussion of conservative Republicans choosing to vote for their values (pro-life and anti-gay marriage in particular) against their own economic self-interest could apply perfectly to the Trump tax bill that passed just A nonfiction book attempting to explain the upswing in conservative voters in the midwest and other rural areas. It's a bit out of date; it was published only in 2004 but things change fast in the politics game. Nonetheless, this book is pretty amazingly prescient; a lot of his discussion of conservative Republicans choosing to vote for their values (pro-life and anti-gay marriage in particular) against their own economic self-interest could apply perfectly to the Trump tax bill that passed just yesterday.

Frank focuses on Kansas because it's his home state, but it also makes for a very interesting case study. Although these days it's almost a byword for conservatism (perhaps moreso in 2004, when the Kansas School Board had recently declared all students must be taught 'evolution is a theory, not a fact'), it once had an equally radical liberal history: Bloody Kansas, John Brown, the Populist movement of the 1890s. Frank blames the shift on Democrats more-or-less abandoning their economic principles of supporting unions, New Deal-esque social welfare programs, high taxes for the rich and strict regulations for corporations. With little to distinguish between Democrats and Republicans in economic terms, the Republicans were able to corral the cultural backlash against the social changes of the last few decades into votes – which they promptly used not to actually repeal abortion or make profanity on TV illegal, but to pass taxes and deregulations that made the rich richer.

It's a sound enough argument. My one criticism of the book is that Frank doesn't address race at all. Or rather, he does bring it up once: to say that it's not a factor in Kansas. Which, uh. I've never been to Kansas, and certainly I don't remember race coming up particularly frequently in the pundit discussions of GWB's first election, but I find that hard to believe. Even if it was true at the time, it's certainly no longer true after Obama. Frank, in general, discounts all social issues compared to economic ones – race, feminism, lgbt rights, etc. And it's not that I don't agree that economics are important! But I think he's incorrect to reduce everything that could possibly fit under the category of 'civil rights' to province of "the self-righteous" (YES THAT IS AN ACTUAL QUOTE, WTF). Both sides can matter.

Anyway, like I said, it's a good book overall, even if I think Frank would benefit from considering stuff other than economics. Like, anything. Anything at all. ...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics

Thomas Frank, born and bred in Kansas, was a poster-boy for conservatism all through his high school and early college career. Slowly but surely, a level-headed liberalism began to sink into his philosophy. Now a rather astute critic of conservatism, Frank looks at his home state in bewilderment.

In his oft-humorous, oft-disturbing book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives won the Heart of America", Frank tries to understand why a state, in which so many of its citizens are low-wage Thomas Frank, born and bred in Kansas, was a poster-boy for conservatism all through his high school and early college career. Slowly but surely, a level-headed liberalism began to sink into his philosophy. Now a rather astute critic of conservatism, Frank looks at his home state in bewilderment.

In his oft-humorous, oft-disturbing book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives won the Heart of America", Frank tries to understand why a state, in which so many of its citizens are low-wage middle class workers, continuously vote for the political party that continuously does the most harm to the middle class. This from a state that, during the 30s, was one of several states that gave birth to one of the largest leftist movements in American history, Populism.

Frank looks at how many conservatives blame the so-called "liberal elite", an imaginary consortium of wealthy, homosexual, pro-choice, anti-Christian intellectuals bent on the destruction of the middle class, and continue to defend and even extoll the unchecked, deregulated corporations that are, as Frank believes, perhaps the real problem. Certainly corporate greed and corruption have played a major part in the dismantling of Kansas's once-fruitful now-endangered farm industry.

Frank points to the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act---a deregulatory initiative that, among other things, ended price supports and allowed for more farm acreage cultivation---as the beginning of the end for today's Kansas farmers.

In what should have been, theoretically, a way for farmers to compete more effectively, the initiative failed on many levels. Frank writes, "Farmers began producing food at maximum capacity, and farm prices plummeted, no longer supported by what were called "non-recourse loans". From a high of over $6.50 in 1996, the average price of a bushel of wheat (the dominant crop in Kansas) fell to $2.25 in 1999, the same price that it had fetched in the disaster years of the mid-eighties. At such a rate, failure was inevitable for everyone except the largest and most efficient farms... For ADM, Cargill, Con Agra, and the rest of the food trust, Freedom to Farm couldn't have been better if they had written the law themselves. (p. 65)" Yet, despite all of this, Frank notes, Kansas conservatives are less outraged by corporate evils than by what many consider more important social evils.

Social conservatism, according to Frank, is the primary focus among most conservative Kansans. Whether it is fighting to eliminate evolution and, in turn, including Intelligent Design theory in school curriculums, protesting abortion clinics, or supporting legislation to prevent marriage equality, conservatives are constantly seeing a world full of evil, most of which is the fault of those damned liberals.

"From the mild-mannered David Brooks to the ever-wrathful Ann Coulter," writes Frank, "attacks on the personal tastes and pretensions of this stratum of society are the stock-in-trade of conservative writers. They, the conservatives, are the real outsiders, they tell us, gazing with disgust upon the ludicrous manners of the high and the mighty. Or, they tell us, they are rough-and-ready proles, laughing along with us at the efforts of our social "betters" to reform and improve us, That they are often, in fact, people of privilege doing their utmost to boost the fortunes of a political party that is the traditional tool of the privileged is a contradiction that does not trouble them. (p. 116)"

Conservatives view themselves as eternal victims because, to them, liberals are an unstoppable force: they are everywhere and they control everything. This victimhood, however, is perceivable only through eyes that have, through denial and historical revisionism and an anti-intellectual capacity to dismiss anything coming from the mouths of those snobbish know-it-all "experts", ignored the economic factors (corporate deregulation, unchecked wealth, ridiculous tax codes, the business mentality that runs everything from education to entertainment) that have shaped the culture we live in.

Frank clearly demonstrates that Kansas is a microcosm of the entire United States. By dividing the country into "two nations"---conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, rich and poor, it doesn't matter---the real problems continue to go unsolved and unsolvable.

At one point, Frank says that people vote not where they are in life but where they want to be, a political wishful thinking that could magically happen via the one power seemingly left to them: the vote. Meanwhile, the super-wealthy and the corporations that run our government and our lives are laughing hysterically at a control board behind a curtain, waiting for the day when Dorothy pushes back that curtain and triumphantly exclaims, "We're not in Kansas anymore!"

...more

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Feb 14, 2010 Clif rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, current-affairs, politics

I hope you will read this book before the next presidential election. Though it was written in 2004, its premise is confirmed by the rise of Sarah Palin, the capture of the Republican nomination by Mitt Romney and the actions of President Obama.

Thomas Frank, with his usual penetrating insight into American society, examines why a group of people near the lower end of the economic order in this country would be attracted to a party that consistently supports policies that hurt that very same grou I hope you will read this book before the next presidential election. Though it was written in 2004, its premise is confirmed by the rise of Sarah Palin, the capture of the Republican nomination by Mitt Romney and the actions of President Obama.

Thomas Frank, with his usual penetrating insight into American society, examines why a group of people near the lower end of the economic order in this country would be attracted to a party that consistently supports policies that hurt that very same group of people.

Simply put, the Republicans have discovered they can separate cultural issues (abortion, gay-rights, private schooling, etc.) from economic issues (the progressive income tax, corporate regulation and influence, etc.) and win economic legislative victories that benefit the folks at the top by employing the culture-directed energies of the folks at the bottom. The rage of the Christian right that fuels this perverse arrangement he terms the backlash.

Frank is concerned not just that the Republicans are using folks, characteristic of politicians of all stripes throughout history, but also that the Democrats have abandoned Joe Average to his economic plight, while striving to appear centrist to business interests. This leaves the traditional Democratic voters, working people, powerless to defend their economic interests because they have no candidate that represents those interests. Barack Obama is the perfect example of this. He offered "hope" and claimed "we are the change we have been waiting for" then proceeded to outdo George W. Bush as a warrior, opponent of American rights, and obedient servant to Wall Street.

But it's not just that traditional Democratic voters have no one to vote for, it's that many of them vote Republican, the traditional party of the wealthy.

Frank speculates that things will only get worse. If the economic devastation already suffered cannot gain on the cultural issues that so drive the backlash, more degradation of the middle and working class can only be expected to provide more rage and self-righteousness among those who feel they are being slighted by "the elite". It's no accident that those who claim to follow Jesus, someone they see as a martyr, would find comfort in seeing themselves in the same put-upon situation.

Frank makes the telling point that the things seen on TV that drive the religious right crazy are not the product of a liberal media out to destroy America, but the direct result of television business decisions that produce shows people watch. Those decrying the trash on TV, but viewing it all the same, are the very audience that sponsors want to reach and the reason why titillation and stretching the envelope in what is aired continues. It is this product of the free market that the right so loves which gives them the stuff they claim to hate.

Emotion has been disconnected from reason. Showing the fallacies in the claims of the rabid conservative base has no effect, nor do they notice the abandonment of the drive to clean up the culture once politicians who claim they will do so are elected. The irrationality of the little guy voting Republican continues regardless of real events which show how counterproductive it is.

When people become irrational beyond reach then democracy becomes a nightmare, no guarantor of freedom.

Conservative personalities such as Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck and Coulter ride the wave of popularity, becoming rich themselves while stoking the rage that feeds on a sense of victimization. The Republican genius is that it has re-directed rage. Instead of anger at the actual elite that take the dollars and leave people jobless, the working stiff roars at a red herring constructed by the GOP - the liberal elite. Listeners become indignant on a daily basis along with the hosts but, unlike the hosts, when the show is over they have no income to show for it, only reinforced rage all the more stoked for being impotent to make material things better for those who feel it.

Frank has a keen sense of humor that plays very well throughout the book, but most important he has fully grasped the subject and makes it plain to the reader. ...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Donna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: essays-ideas

I bought this book a couple of years ago, mainly because of the title. I, too, had been wondering about the egg-headedness of the so-called American "heartland," all those people in the "red" states in the 2000 and 2004 elections that voted en masse against their own economic interests.

But like most Americans, I wasn't really interested in economic matters, figuring it was up to the "experts" to keep the wheels of commerce churning. Thus, I had a share in the tragic complacency that brought all I bought this book a couple of years ago, mainly because of the title. I, too, had been wondering about the egg-headedness of the so-called American "heartland," all those people in the "red" states in the 2000 and 2004 elections that voted en masse against their own economic interests.

But like most Americans, I wasn't really interested in economic matters, figuring it was up to the "experts" to keep the wheels of commerce churning. Thus, I had a share in the tragic complacency that brought all of us Americans to the place we were at the time: living in a society in moral and economic decline and feeling that nothing could be done about it. What's the Matter with Kansas? is not a particularly easy read, so I donated it, unfinished, to my local library.

Like many Americans, I became politicized in the course of the last election cycle, as Barack Obama led so many of us to believe, and then to demonstrate, that deep and meaningful change is possible. After the election, it became imperative for me to understand what had happened to my country, so that I can do my part in preventing the same mistakes that brought us to disaster--economically, socially, morally, and environmentally. I borrowed my formerly owned book from the library, read a few chapters, and then went out and bought another copy so I could make notes in the margins. The book I thought was boring a few months ago was now riveting.

Among many other things, I now understand the appeal to conservatives of a Sarah Palin, how she "energized the base." I understand how the very affluent have used hot-button issues, like abortion and gun control, to distract the middle-class and poor from their own diminishing circumstances. I can even see how savage, obnoxious backlash pundits serve a purpose in expressing the rage and helplessness of people who instinctively know that things are going to Hell but feel they can't do anything about it.

Thomas Frank, who is from Kansas and has a Ph.D. in history, has done a great job of explaining the social and political upheavals of the past forty years or so. For anyone who wants to understand what happened and what's happening now, I highly recommend this book. ...more

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May 21, 2017 Cody rated it it was amazing

In writing "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," author Thomas Frank has written such a conclusive account of conservative political stratagem that it should be a defining cornerstone of contemporary political insight. Insightful, funny, and shocking all at the same time, What's the Matter with Kansas has provided this reader with thought on the relationship of class and politics for months, years, and dare i say decades to come. With Frank's home state as In writing "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," author Thomas Frank has written such a conclusive account of conservative political stratagem that it should be a defining cornerstone of contemporary political insight. Insightful, funny, and shocking all at the same time, What's the Matter with Kansas has provided this reader with thought on the relationship of class and politics for months, years, and dare i say decades to come. With Frank's home state as a backdrop, the idea of the political conservative vehicle of the common man rising against a sharply biased liberal elite in an assumably unwinnable social war has grown to become such a significant convention in not only conservatively minded Kansas, but across the USA. Frank argues that through this tactic, conservatives have appealed to many blue collar workers who would otherwise look to liberals for political identity. This class of people, upset over being left behind by the so called liberal ivy league elites, hollywood types sucking down lattes, and other left leaning stereotypes, are desperately looking for a sense of political authenticity. And in this desperation, the Republican party has seen a clear advantage they've been exploiting since the counter-culture 1960's. Frank ultimately views this working class of conservatives as victims, trading economic prosperity for unnecessary political identity. The working class is willing to settle for economic starvation while boosting the big businesses those values they apparently share. Laissez-faire economics reign supreme, stripping Kansas of economic prosperity. It's quite an enjoyable read that only a native Kansan could provide. The personification of Kansas as soft-spoken plainsman farmer/ socially ostentatious showman- freak is quite amusing, but also poetically true. Frank has provided so many interesting tidbits regarding views of religion or adoration across Kansas that it was quite eye-opening and still relevant over a decade after the books release. Bottom line, an enjoyable, contemporary, and important book to read in our current political landscape. ...more

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Oct 05, 2013 Al rated it it was amazing

Frank was the founder of The Baffler - a magazine I remember vaguely from the 90s as being liberal and (though it had its moments) pretentious as hell. Still, Kansas is a book that I have read a lot of good things about, and stands as one of the great political books written in the last decade.

I expected that I might like it, but there was a lot more to it than I would have guessed. You could probably guess the main plotline of how the GOP has garnered blue collar support - even to the point tha Frank was the founder of The Baffler - a magazine I remember vaguely from the 90s as being liberal and (though it had its moments) pretentious as hell. Still, Kansas is a book that I have read a lot of good things about, and stands as one of the great political books written in the last decade.

I expected that I might like it, but there was a lot more to it than I would have guessed. You could probably guess the main plotline of how the GOP has garnered blue collar support - even to the point that low-income Conservatives actively vote against their own interests.

There is a lot more analysis and history than just what you might expect from a James Carville or Jim Webb. With apologies to at least one friend who resides there, Frank starts by recounting all the great nutcases Kansas has given us through the years- John Brown, Carry Nation, Operation Rescue, and Fred Phelps to name a few. Frank describes a history of populism and how Kansas has had an unique take it on throughout the years (though, to be fair, it seems applicable to most of the midwest I know). Frank describes the shift of the Kansas Republican meme (moderates like Bob Dole, Alf Landon, and Ike) to the current incarnation (Sam Brownback, Jim Ryun).

This book is a fascinating read filled with a lot of history and local characters that will be new to most. He's certainly liberal and often funny, but Frank is well-researched and avoids any Michael Mooreisms. (To be fair, Frank in his afterword does place much blame on the Clinton-era Democrat party that has abandoned working-class liberalism). The book is fascinating to show how the Religious Right took over the GOP, but eight years later, it makes one think of how the Tea Party is doing much the same and kicking out some established Republicans.

I just touched on the basics, but there is so much more- such as how corporations took advantage of people (Wal-Martization) and the effect that we don't see until it's too late. It's absolutely fascinating. and a book that you will carry around and go back to for many conversations to come. ...more

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Jul 24, 2016 Candice rated it it was amazing

Re Republicans: "The leaders of the backlash may talk Christ, but they walk corporate. Values may 'matter most' but they always take a backseat to the needs of money once the elections are won...Their grandstanding leaders never deliver, their fury mounts and mounts, and nevertheless they turn out every two years to return their right-wing heroes to office for a second, a third, a twentieth try. The trick never ages; the illusion never wears off. Vote to stop abortion, receive a rollback in capi ...more

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About Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank

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Thomas Frank is the author of Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What's the Matter with Kansas? A former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and writes regularly for Salon. He lives outside Washington, D.C. ...more

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“For decades, Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting.... The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their fists at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawoof toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while the millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. 'We are here,' they scream, 'to cut your taxes.” — 15 likes

“...the people at the top know what they have to do to stay there, and in a pinch they can easily overlook the sweaty piety of the new Republican masses, the social conservatives who raise their voices in praise of Jesus but cast their votes for Caesar.” — 12 likes

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