Rating: 
Summary: Defines the problem well; offers no solutions
Review: First off, "A Reader from Missouri" who rated the book 1 star on July 4 didn't read the book because he speaks of "a north-eastern snob writes a book telling Kansans..." Only one problem: Tom Frank, the author, is from KANSAS, and he describes his upbringing there in detail. Now he lives in Chicago, but that's hardly the Northeast, and he spent an incredible amount of time in Kansas the last three years researching the book and interviewing people. Watch out for "reviewers" who haven't read the book their reviewing. Although Frank is clearly a (dreaded, evil) liberal, he writes well and the book seems well researched. The gist of the book is describing how it happened that the state of Kansas turned from moderate Republican (Dole, Kassebaum) to far-right Rebublican (Ryun, Brownback) in less than a decade. Yes, Kansas was ALWAYS Republican, but now it's much, much, much farther to the right than it has ever been in its history. This in spite of its proud heritage as a battleground against slavery and the birth of 1890's farm-based Populism. Frank details how working class Christian "social" conservative Republicans took over Kansas (and other states) from the moderate "economic" Republicans, in spite of the fact that the policies they support tend to benefit the wealthy, moderate, "economic" Republicans the most. The major line of thought I got from the book is that ECONOMICS DON'T MATTER to the social conservatives. All they care about is abortion, decline of the family, reducing the size of government, and stopping government from telling them what to do, with abortion being the "real" issue. What Frank doesn't answer is, "So what?" and "What are we to do with this info?" I would have enjoyed seeing some ideas on how moderate mainstream Republicans and Democrats, who constitute the true majority of Americans, can take their country back from extremists, be they left or right. One thing the Democratic party should do is stop worrying about social conservatives. They are NEVER going to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Ever. IGNORE THEM. Concentrate on how you will get moderates to vote the Demo ticket, by making govt. more efficient, making health care affordable, ending corporate tax breaks and subsidies, advancing entrepreneurship, improving social security, reforming the military to fight terrorism instead of Cold War enemies, and making post-secondary education more affordable. In the end, it is the latter, creating more college-educated people, which will most benefit our country (in a time of outsourcing manufacturing) and the Democratic Party. Repeat after me: EDUCATION IS EVERYTHING.
Rating: 
Summary: Michael Moore Now Is Pissed Off At Kansas Republicans!!
Review: First off, I ask readers who claim genuine objectivity to check out the excellent review of this book in National Review's June 28, 2004 edition (p48). NR is definitely the conservative stalwart's publication, but I found the review to be a fair assessment (read the final paragraph as proof). Once I read Mr. Frank's book, I had a better understanding of the angle he was coming from (bent considerably to the left). When finished, I came away with this: he's ticked off that the dumb masses of Kansas have been duped into having the nerve to hold values (God, Pro-Life, Gun Protection) that are diametrically opposed to the Democrats, and even though the Republican Party appeals to a Kansan's values, the fact that poor people could vote Republican is ridiculous, and strange at best. And so someone like Mr. Frank, who is canted towards the Marxist ideal, will never understand why Americans with lower incomes would ever vote Republican. Because, how economically useless are 'values?' I think the voting trend makes sense, for this one simple reason: Marxists/Leftists/Socialists/Liberals/Democrats - WHATEVER their current disguise du jour - thrive on the poor and disaffected, and utterly depend on their vote. This despite the fact that most of the Donkey Party politicos were born, bought into, or stole fabulous wealth (Kerry+Edwards = over $1 bil in personal wealth; what an emotional tie they must have to their constituents!). Yet, c'mon people, poor folk DON'T WANT TO BE POOR!! The American demand for independence transcends one's yearly net income. Yet even Mr. Frank's book title hints at his impatience with independent thought ("Don't you all get it? Are you that stupid?" - what a compelling technique for unity!) Rather than lament, as he does, the question of why in hell would the poor vote overwhelmingly Republican, a better question might be to ask which party's polices will help one the most in the long run. Without the poor and dependent, the Democrat's days of influence would end abruptly, since once a voter has gained economic independence (read: freedom) through private wealth, Republican policies traditionally are more attractive (granted, their record here is weakening with each new Fiscal Year). Democrat policies are by far a greater drain on the middle and upper class than Republican. Mr. Frank spends hundreds of pages denying this truism, yet voting records don't lie (but fat bearded 'documentarists' do). Without the poor, Dems would be homeless. So why would they ever support policies that help people create wealth and independence? Such policies would be political suicide for leftists. Human nature will always seek freedom, it's in our genetic and spiritual makeup; therefor the policies (fiscal, educational, even spiritual) Mr. Frank evidently holds dear in his compelling yet flawed "What's The Matter With Kansas" will always, ultimately, fail. Still a worthy book to peruse if you can get it for free.
Rating: 
Summary: High Plains Pundit
Review: Having lived over half of my life in Kansas I was drawn to this book like a moth to light. Throw in the fact that I am a moderate in my political leans and you have a book that I just had to read. You might also guess that given my back ground and the books focus, any review I will pen will be biases to the positive. I would say you are right. First off if you live in the Kansas City metro area you need to get this book just for the interesting and insightful comments that author has about the different parts of town and the different population segments. He hit's the nail on the head so many times that I got home sick by page ten. The author has such an open and helpful way of describing the place and the people that you not only know it is correct, but you feel it page after page. Add in the rather interesting and slightly whimsical writing style and you have a very entertaining book.
For those of you not from Kansas, never fear. The book does a wonderful job of describing the down home folks view of the state of U.S. politics and why the GOP is moving further and further to the right. The author does a great job of explaining why so many people are voting against their best interests because of cultural issues. How has the Republican party been moved past its core political goals and been enveloped by moral issues is the interesting back story of the book. The way the author detailed out the backlash culture and the comfort of being against something instead of for something shed new light on why so many conservatives lose sight of their almost libertarian view of government when it comes to overt religious issues. I can honestly say that this book has made me view some of the conservative talking heads and general public statements in a new and more understood light. The author even explained that whole evolution being banded from Kansas schools thing.
Overall I can not say enough positive about the book. From the interesting writing style and peppy word choice, to the insightful and well thought out commentary, this book is a keeper and well worth your time. Do not limit yourself by geography. The comments made in the book provide you an understanding of a cultural phenomena and not just a review of Kansas politics. Even if your politics is of the GOP variety, put aside your perceived prejudice and dig into the book. The author does a good job of describing the two different factions within the Republican party and I would think that anyone left of the John Birch Society would find it interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Astonishing Concession Conservatives Are Marking
Review: I've already reviewed this book, in a sense; my glowing blurb appears on the back cover. Here's a review of the conservative reviewers, from George Will and the New York Times Book Review essayist to the folks on Amazons. They make an astonishing concession: they grant Tom Frank's main point. He argues that the Republicans have nothing to offer working people on ECONOMIC TERMS. The conservatives don't seem to disagree. They only argue that the Republicans are worth voting for on cultural terms alone, and seek to demonstrate that this is a legitimate way to vote. This is new. Conservatives used to argue that they had the most to offer ordinary Americans ECONOMICALLY--and ALSO culturally. Now, on economics, they've simply given up. They've tacitly admitted that, for lower income folks at least, cultural conservatism is the party's sole appeal. A sad day for conservatism, and certainly evidence of its political decline. And of course none of the conservative reviews can deal with the fact that the cultural battles the Republicans choose are bottomless unwinnable sinkholes. That's why I describe conservatives as having punk'd a nation: they offer their voters nothing in return but therapy. Rick Perlstein
rperlstein@villagevoice.com
Rating:
Summary: Orwell was right about 1984, and Thomas Frank explains 2004
Review: In his book 1984, George Orwell described the state of perpetual war in his fictional future society by saying that the war wasn't meant to be won, it was only meant to be continuous. In WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?, Thomas Frank illustrates how, and how effectively, the neoconservative right has implemented Orwell's concepts via a neverending war over culture and values. Using his home state of Kansas as the model and focal point, Frank asks rhetorically why it is that Kansans so willingly espouse right-wing social issues (creationism, defunding public schools, prayer in schools, pro-life) while simultaneously allowing their state to become economically devastated by Republican free market policies of unfettered, unregulated capitalism. In other words, why do Kansans (and many other Red Staters) vote consistently against their pocketbooks, against their own economic self-interest? With great specificity, Frank illustrates these behaviors and their devastating economic consequences by describing individuals and communities in Kansas. These are some of the strongest parts of his book, since they demonstrate through real people and real towns how life has changed, and continues to change, under Republican conservative rule. If anything, Frank could use more of these examples, particularly more description of some of the small towns and communities in his state that are dying a slow and tortured economic death. Regardless, the examples given convey the sense that Kansans are voting Red even as they vote themselves economically dead. Frank correctly ascribes this seemingly self-contradictory behavior to the idea that Conservatives have discovered a means to incite permanent "backlash" among the Red Staters through culture wars. Whatever the issue, whether it's Janet Jackson's right breast or gay marriage in Massachusetts, Conservative politicians whip up fierce indignation and activism by threatening the loss of American moral values to the eastern, intellectual elite who support the denigration of those values and the denial of moral absolutes. And, as Frank points out, despite years of bitter denunciation, almost nothing has changed. The war rages on, but the Conservatives rarely win even a skirmish. By focusing attention on culture issues, the Conservatives not only distract their followers from economic concerns, they remove capitalism itself as an issue. For Red Staters, capitalism is a natural force, and free markets are an absolute good. Concerns about environment, globalization, estate taxes, Wal-Martization, health and welfare all disappear, since laissez-faire is an inviolable principle. Capitalism cannot and must not be regulated in this worldview, and any restrictions and regulations designed to "thwart" it are necessarily wrong if not evil. The fact that culture itself -- MTV, Hollywood, Howard Stern, Fear Factor -- is a capitalist product that follows the same profit motivations goes unnoticed. In Kansas, as in most places, there is no connection in people's minds between culture and capitalism. Frank has put his thumb directly on the source of America's current problems, the so-called Red State, Blue State divide. As I write this review on July 9, 2004, the United States remains embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, our standing in the world is at an all-time low, Tom Ridge is warning against another imminent Al-Qaeda attack, the country is hemorrhaging jobs, young kids can less and less afford to go to college, gas and milk prices have soared to all-time highs, working men and women can't make ends meet even with two or more jobs, millions are without health insurance, the President claims the power to arrest and detain anyone he chooses without legal representation, and our education system is becoming enslaved to meaningless standardized tests. What solutions does our Republican President and Republican legislative branch offer? The Senate is too busy preparing for an all-out legislative war over a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to worry about real problems. The newspaper every day tells us just how correct Thomas Frank is in his analysis. Kansas isn't just Kansas, Kansis is us! Anyone who truly wants to understand today's upside-down political world, who wants to understand how middle class people can enthusiastically support tax cuts that give them nothing and the rich more money and power, should read WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? Mr. Frank offers clear and straightforward explanation of this bizarre phenomenon, and his insights and implications should send chills down the spines of those who espouse a free, fair, and open society. To quote Frank's closing line: that the "fever-dream of martyrdom that Kansas follows today...invites us all to join in, to lay down our lives so others might cash out at the top; to renounce forever our middle-American prosperity in pursuit of a crimson fantasy of middle-American righteousness." How much better can it be said?
Rating:
Summary: while it is not "the economy, stupid", it should be
Review: It's perfectly clear why rich people vote Republican. They want and get lower taxes as a result. Big business also clearly loves Republican legislators because they give them what they want (less regulation, more loopholes, more domination, etc). But as a liberal (by the way, I don't drink latte, am not rich, don't like the vulgarity so prevalent in the media - controlled, by the way, by big business -, I believe in God, have simple tastes, try to live honestly and help others in need, and don't consider myself better than others), I've often wondered why so many lower and middle income people in places like Kansas vote Republican as well. When the rich get lower taxes, the rest of us have to pay more. When big business (e.g. ConAgra, Archer Daniels Midland) gets it's way, small farmers are forced off the land, small businesses are overrun by the Wal-marts of this world, health care and drug costs go up, etc. This book clearly explains why, better than any other I'm familiar with, James Carville's famous slogan, "It's the economy, stupid" is not operative here. It is, rather, cultural issues, some real (e.g. abortion, gun control) but most false and playing on feelings of inferiority/superiority (what you drink - latte? - how you talk - use big words? bad - think you're better than me? - I'm much more down home and authentic than you). What a shame distortions, biases and hatred of others perceived as "different" from us plays such a large role in American politics. It is no accident, but rather a well orchestrated and financed campaign from the right.
Rating: 
Summary: Smoke and mirrors
Review: My family all turned Reagan Democrats, my students now weary of the race/culture/class wars, my "white ethnic" blue-collar memories (I'm four years older than Frank) are too recent to recall any LBJ Great Society or its post-war affluence. So, I was eager--after being wowed by the Harper's Magazine precis of his book--to find out more. The trouble is that Frank rarely talks to everyday people--like those represented by my father, sister, in-laws, students--who made the switch away from a class-based capitalist-wary to a values-based, pro-corporate worldview.
As he admits, parsing Ann Coulter's prose does little to expose the intellectual weaknesses of arguments based more on resentment than reason. Frank carefully dissects many pundits' pronouncements, yet the effect leaves me too detached from the grassroots reactions that fuel this season of prairie fire. When Frank admits a bit of admiration for Tim Golba's sincerity and committment to his anti-abortion crusade, this becomes a refreshing bit of candor and gives a personal touch to what too often, especially in later chapters about religion and race, sags into pro-forma mainstream left-leaning journalism. The chapter on sedevacantist offshoots of Catholicism, for example, drags down one on anti-intellectualism. Too much speculation and too few talks with true believers who react to what the pundits and politicians pontificate keep the book as a whole removed from the Kansas that Frank knows but has difficulty conveying to us far from "Cupcake Land" and its endless, raw strip malls, retail chains, and ticky-tacky McMansions.
Many who responded to Frank's original piece thought that he had overlooked the loss of the culture war by the Democrats. It'll be interesting, in the probable updated forward to a post02004 election paperback edition, how Frank will see his thesis vindicated once again. The latter pages do castigate the Dems for their hubris and condescension, but even here, you feel like the narrative--how did so many blue-collar folks desert the left--lacks enough attention at the voter level to this process. Frank focuses more on the leaders rather than the led in this movement over the last three decades, and for me at least, this detracts from the full insight that he could have found when investigating the loss of the blue-collar vote.
When I tried reading Frank's The Baffler years back, I was baffled. Too po-mo. His craft has improved, but as one who penned Commodify Your Dissent, his claim that the film/TV/corporate media is not left-leaning but merely in it for the money, while true on the profit end, does seem to let the whole Hollywood-NYC latte set off the hook when it comes to their disdain for the common people. Yes, creative types do generally go left and to the coastal cities. With relatives in the film industry, and me living in L.A, I can attest that even at a much lower rank of the cultural pecking order, there's lots of disdain that comes from those in the media, who give as good as they get in turn from the right-wing backlash. This, in fact, has been credited in the exurbs to strengthening the clout of the right in 2004, since so many commuters listen to talk radio longer and longer on their daily drives to their own versions of "Cupcake Land" and its dustier subdivisions. Frank could have looked into this relationship in terms of his media manufacturing analysis, which appears jumbled and too compressed here to be convincing.
In condensed form, as in the Harper's article, this analysis packed a punch. Here, in a book that despite its largish print and 250 pp. of text seems padded (although many of his 40 pp. of denser footnotes are well-written and show his research off nicely), Frank's argument loses its energy.
Rating:
Summary: Explains the insanity which is American Politics
Review: One of the achievements of Karl Marx was the idea that people were meant to vote for parties that reflected their economic interests and that politics was about the allocation of resources. Whilst this is perhaps the key to understanding the political dynamics of most European countries the reality is that in places like Asia or Africa politics can be based around regional or ethnic groupings rather than class.
This book looks at Kansas, an American state which in the 30's had a radical history but now has been moving further and further to the right against a backdrop of increasing poverty and social collapse. The conventional wisdom would be that faced with poverty there should be a shift to the right.
What has been happening in Kansas is that as poverty increases, job security slips away and the bargaining power of workers collapses a lot of resentment has occurred. However this resentment has not been channelled towards political leftist movements. In fact the poor and the disaffected are joining the Republican Party in droves and pushing towards the right. The rebellion that is expressed is not against economic globalisation and downsizing the issues that are causing problems of regional unemployment but against a mythical liberal establishment which is somehow ruining America. In reality the sorts of problems faced by Kansas might be lessened somewhat by less conservative economic policies. However rather than expressing outrage at the rich who have adopted polices which have made Kansas what it is, most of the disaffected want to cut their taxes.
The main fight in Kansas is between two Republican parties. One which has members of the old elite, committed to reducing regulation taxes and government activity and but which has a middle class tolerance for issues around abortion, feminism and gay rights. The other which is a new movement based on poorly educated but highly motivated fundamentalist Christians who have the same economic program but whose real program amounts to an attack on what is seen as the liberal elite. That is a desire to roll back abortion reform, end public education and to somehow return public attitudes about women and gay issues to the 50s. In this fight the Democratic Party are nowhere as most of the people who would have supported them in the past have drifted to the evangelical wing of the Republican Party.
Most main stream commentators in the past suggest that the swing to the right in American politics was because of racial issues. The way this theory works is that in years gone by the Democrats used to win the south. In the 1960's Lyndon Johnson enacted he policies which destroyed segregation. From that time on the south started to drift to the right. Many commentators have thought that the drift was the result of a resentment by voters against the Democrats the party which destroyed the historic order. In addition prior to the 1960's the Democrats acted as a one party democracy. It contained both conservative and leftist elements. After the 1960s the more conservative elements were free to find their natural home in the Republican Party.
This books suggests another theory. Kansas is a state which was not really a significant slave owning state and the changes in the 60s did not affect things that much. It is a state however where the change to the Republicans has occurred making it virtually a one party state.
The key to understanding Kansas is that what the new politics is about is backlash and resentment, symbolism rather than about concrete policies. The new right has a mythology of victimhood, grounded in the problems faced by those ordinary people of Kansas who are being forced of the land, seeing their towns decline and opportunity falling away. The resentment is focused on a vague image of a liberal elite, an image based on watching television and Hollywood movies. The author is a person who lived his early life in Kansas. He sees the cause of the backlash as a by product of America's addiction to self help books stressing the power of positive thought and the lack of ability to have a more sophisticated world view. He believes that the backlash is a desire by poorer people who have tried to live according to what they see as the rules to change the rest of society to live by those rules. However the outlook is inherently frustrating, as the only result is by cutting taxes enriching the elite that is so hated.
Key to the new conservatism is the failure of the Democrats to create a constituency in the area. For years the Democrats have assumed that they had the votes of the working poor and have aimed their campaign efforts at picking up the middle class vote by concentrating on what are seen as progressive values. In fact they should not have taken these votes as given as most have now walked to the Republicans and the reason is pushing those values which were meant to win over the middle class. One wonders just how far the march to the right will go.
Rating:
Summary: Same here in South Dakota. This book pretty much nails
Review: the reason the fundies have taken over my state as well as Kansas and others. I'm a native of South Dakota for 20 years and have been puzzled as to why the heck people in my state and others have for 36 years happily voted against their own general interests and thus for the Republicans who are no real friends to farmers which partly explains why my state is continuing to rust away to hell. Now a lot of you out there have probably heard the fascist media like Foxnews, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, etc ... tell you lie after lie that people like Tom Daschle lost because he was too liberal and that Bush was lovable in my state when in fact that's not really the case. After having read Frank's book, here's what I can easily tell you about the similar fate that is happening here in South Dakota. This state that was once rich with agriculture has been talibanized into agri-business which means that meat-packing, what Walmart finally resorted to after engaging in union busting much like Saddam Hussein killing his own people, and food processing with more deregulatory measures thereby harming people's health and contributing to the skyrocketing the cost of healthcare has been the norm. Now you've probably seen the talibonized foxnews for example overemphasize that people in my state hate the Democrats because they're anti-gun and pro-abortion. Is it really true? Thomas Frank would say not really. You see, Tom Daschle, like many other Democrats, have been writing off the economy for such a long time that his voters including myself have grown disallusioned and upset. That of course leads to two outcomes:
1. people like myself still trying to tolerate the Democrats and hope that they will come back to grips with reality and stand up for principles and do things like filibuster Bush's destructive tax programs and his nazi-like war in iraq rather than limiting filibustering only to judicial nominees. I can tell you for a fact that that is the bulk of us remaining Democratic voters here in South Dakota and in Kansas as well as much of the heartland.
2. angry voters who then turn voting based mainly on hot-button issues such as abortion, gun-rights, gay-marriages, flag-burning, patriotism such as sticking a condescending Support-our-troops sticker on the back of a SUV, etc... These types of voters are the ones that Thomas Frank actually emphasizes as he points out that he in fact has talked to a lot of his native Kansans who confirm his belief that it's now about the culture wars and not war against economic rapists such as the CEOs, Wall Street, propaganda media, dishonest companies that mug their customers, etc...
Just last Novemeber, people foolishly thought Bush would take care of the culture decline when in fact, it's now even more clear that not only does he not want to ban gay marriages or even abortions as they've gone up in his first term, but now he is ready to gut social security, give us a European-like national sales tax to further destroy the middle class, drag this country further into another holocaust war with Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc ... . Like President Truman always said "How many times does it have to hit your head until you realize you've been hit."
(...)
Rating:
Summary: What IS the matter with Kansas?
Review: This is not the sort of book I would normally pick up. I am not a partisan person and neither political party represents both my conservative social views and liberal economic beliefs. As a Kansan, however, the title grabbed my attention. Once I started reading the book, I was hooked. Although I did not know exactly how to articulate it, I have often wondered how the Republican Party has managed to capture the votes of workers, even though its economic policy is tied to the interests of big business. In What's the Matter with Kansas, Frank details the rise of the conservative movement and the impotency of the Democratic Party in the heartland.
I love how Frank explores politics in Kansas history, making a link to current political happenings. His description of Kansas (and particularly Kansas City metro area) politics is dead-on. As a former Kansan, he does not denigrate the state but celebrates it.
Although Frank is a liberal and does discuss issues from that point of view, he is remarkably balanced. He does not vilify conservatives as a group and his explanation of the conservative point of view served to give me a new respect for the conservative rank-and-file.
I earnestly recommend this book as essential reading for concerned Americans, no matter what political affiliation you may have. It gave me a new understanding of American politics, not just of my home state.
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