Can Conservatives Win Back the Heart of America?
Thomas Frank, in his 2004 book What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, was not speaking to conservatives, but he had some thoughts that conservatives would do well to heed. What’s the matter with Kansas? In Frank’s view, the problem with Kansans is that they vote conservative and Republican even though their interests are better served by the Democratic Party and its liberal philosophy. He describes McPherson County, Kansas, as one of the poorest counties in America, populated by struggling ranchers and dying farm towns; yet in 2000 George W. Bush carried the county with 80% of the vote. In Frank’s view, this shouldn’t be happening. Only rich people should vote Republican; poor people should be liberal and Democratic. Nobody who works for an employer should ever vote Republican, he says, and I agree — unless that worker wants his employer to stay in business so his paychecks don’t bounce, or unless he thinks it is immoral to rob from some people and g
