The conservative white voters who comprised the majority of Brownback’s base elected a politician who implemented a series of policies that, at their core, limited social mobility. Brownback’s version of backlash austerity concentrated wealth at the top of the social pyramid while starving the main conduits through which immigrant, minority, and poor communities mobilized upward. This form of anything-but-experimental austerity ensured that people at the top remained there and people at the bottom were forever looking up.
