What's the Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank is nonfiction and, therefore, homework. The premise, however, did interest me. The book asks: how can the Republicans manage to make so many Americans, represented here by the residents of Kansas, vote against their financial interest? Frank's answer is that the Republicans turn everyone's attention away from how their party helps the rich and to the nasty, un-American, immoral, big city elitists who control the media and try to force their "librul" views down the throats of true, hardworking Americans. Such was the argument he expressed many times and illustrated with many similar examples. I did dog-ear pages, but by the end of the book when everything Frank wrote seemed a restatement of views he had already written, I lost interest. Let's look at the dog-eared pages. Maybe a few will recapture the interest I first had in the book.
1) No specific quote, but I did find the history of the book's title interesting. "What's the Matter with Kansas?" was originally an article written by a William Allen White in 1898. At the time Kansas was known for radical views, and White put forth the argument that these reformers were ruining Kansas, sending it down the path to hell. Kansas radical? Frank pointed out the state's position on slavery and reminded me that John Brown did originally come from there. So, in historical lights, Kansas started out a loud defender of liberal views. Frank then notes several movements that still start in Kansas—Wichita being selected by Operation Rescue as the location for the first of the major abortion protests and Topeka being the home of the God-hates-fags preacher. The feeling I got from Frank is that Kansas is as strident as it has ever been; the difference is that now it supports the far right conservative movement.
2) Frank discusses the strict social classifications in Kansas, particularly represented by a Johnson County. I'm sure that like many Americans, I think of our country maybe not as classless but certainly as a place where people with money and manners can upgrade the class in which they started. Frank's description of Kansas reminded me of what a friend once told me about his two-years-plus residency in London where class advancement is simply not an option. I also get the feeling that Johnson County in Kansas is far more "southern" than Huntsville, Alabama, both in terms of society and politics.
3) Frank also points out the strong capitalistic views of Kansas. Yep, he had to remind me that both Wal-Mart and Hallmark started and have their headquarters in Kansas.
4) Frank summarizes a discussion of the ills that have befallen Kansas with the following:
No one denies that they (the ills) have happened, that they're still happening. Yet Kansas, that famous warrior for justice, how does it react? Why, Kansas looks its problems straight in the eye, sets its jaw, rolls up its sleeves—and charges off in exactly the wrong direction.
It's not that Kansas isn't angry; rage is a bumper crop here, and Kansas has produced enough fury to give every man, woman, and child in the country apoplexy. The state is in rebellion. The state is up in arms. It's just that the arms are all pointed away from the culprit.
Kansans just don't care about economic issues, gloats Republican senator Sam Brownback, a man who believes the cause of poverty is spiritual rather than 'mechanistic.' Kansans have set their sights on grander things, like the purity of the nation. Good wages, fair play in farm country, the fate of the small town, even the one we live in—all these are a distant second to evolution, which we will strike from the books, and public education, which we will undermine in a hundred inventive ways. (page 68)
Wow! And there you have the whole picture. Dang! Those Republicans are gooooood! .
I'll stop here.
What's the Matter with Kansas? is very much another little-girl-with-a-curl book. When it's good, it's good. When it's not, it's horrid. And dull. And tedious. And let's not forget repetitious.
But for the good parts, I'm glad I read it.
