One of “our most insightful social observers”* cracks the great political mystery of our time: how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank turns his eye on what he calls the “thirty-year backlash”—the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party’s success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers. In asking “what ’s the matter with Kansas?”—how a place famous for its radicalism became one of the most conservative states in the union—Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where’s the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative. Frank answers them by examining pop conservatism—the bestsellers, the radio talk shows, the vicious political combat—and showing how our long culture wars have left us with an electorate far more concerned with their leaders’ “values” and down-home qualities than with their stands on hard questions of policy. A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What’s the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People. -- Los Angeles Times

"The problem is not that Democrats are monolithically pro-choice or anti-school prayer; it's that by dropping the class language that once distinguished them sharply from Republicans, they have left themselves vulnerable to cultural wedge issues like guns and abortion and the rest whose hallucinatory appeal would ordinarily be overshadowed by material concerns. We are in an environment where Republicans talk constantly about class -- in a coded way, to be sure -- but where Democrats are afraid to bring it up."

A NATION IN AN ANGRY MOOD A NEW POLL FINDS US INCREASINGLY BITTER, FRUSTRATED AND CYNICAL.

DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994

Americans are in an ugly mood, and that's a dangerous fact for politicians and others dependent on the kindness of strangers.

That's the bleak conclusion of a major new poll by the Times Mirror Center assessing the national political climate.

The survey paints a picture of an America that has become an increasingly bitter, frustrated, cynical and selfish place over the last seven years. And it portrays a public ever more distrustful and hopeless about its government.

``This is an electorate that is angry, self-absorbed and unanchored politically,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Times Mirror Center.

Among the grim details:

Americans are increasingly indifferent toward the problems of blacks and minorities and resentful toward immigrants.

Fewer Americans think government should take care of needy people.

Public disgust with Washington is significantly worse than in 1992. More voters want traditional politicians replaced with a fresh, new batch. And a third party is looking better all the time.

More than 70 percent of Americans think the media, especially television news shows, hurt the country more than they help.

The poll's analysts concluded that the Clinton administration's agenda of change and economic recovery have failed to reverse an overwhelming political cynicism in the country.

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, What's the Matter With Kansas