Thomas Frank's "What's the matter with Kansas?"

Résumé du document

Introduction

Thomas Frank has been deeply astonished and revolted with the myth of the “two-nation” America which has been cultivated by various opinion makers – especially popular journalists. This observation motivated him to look for this true America that so many op-eds and public intellectuals were talking about. This America from the “heartland” became his domain of investigation where this young journalist wanted to check if the myth of the polarized America that was presented to all the Americans was indeed a reality. This process led him to the writing quite a long and precise book on this very topic, it is named: What's the matter with Kansas?

His Kansan roots oriented his choice of a strong conservative and genuine part of the United States he could analyze cautiously and plainly. In effect, George W. Bush scored about 80 % in this state in the 2000 election. The author was looking for a state that could faithfully represent what the blue-collared America that one described as “righteous”, “simple” and naturally, strongly “Christian” was really about.

Extraits

[...] As Frank puts it: “Kansas is to ghostly matters what Silicon Valley is to tech startups” Kansas is beyond that a very pious state hat welcomes a lot of different confessions from all around America and the world. All this explains why Kansas has become one of the leading Backlash state in America, where the Republicans achieve to make the Democratic Party powerless with the benediction of the Moderate Republicans who once affirmed loudly that they were for the separation of state and church, pro-choice and pro-gay rights. These ones did yet several times affirm their differences like in 1996 as some of the Mods' voted for a democrat in the state legislature. [...]

[...] Thomas Frank rejects them point by point as we shall see. I. The Great Backlash: a legitimization through biased representations The general theory of the Great Backlash is the sum of two distinct phenomenon that are however very closely linked, namely: a countercultural movement that flourished as an opponent to the liberal 60es and a growing tendency of an elite rejection. The cornerstone of the Backlash's success is to have succeeded in reinforcing terrifyingly the first while using the latter as a simple instrument. [...]

[...] Frank points out several times that it is in fact a “class although no “pundit journalist” would ever mentions it. The consequence of such a shift in the political landscape is a strong reinforcement of the corporate world to the detriment of the workers, whose moral convictions are taken in account by the Republicans whereas their working conditions, wages, health care and living conditions are less considered by the Democrats as before. Frank, during his investigation is really bluffed by the evolution of his home state from a “working class paradise” to a low wage workers zone where working hard is not any more sufficient to live decently, insofar as the wages are very low and the working conditions very hard. [...]

[...] The terrifying part of this political trick is that all this occurs in a broad wave of voters who deny themselves the phenomenon is called denying”. It means that they support politicians that once in power, of course defend the values they embody but also represent the interests of the business class that are hugely contradictory to the workers' interests who albeit voted for them. As Thomas Frank puts it, it is: a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting” This leads to a latent destruction of the welfare state that is authorized by its former defender, the working class, because of the concealment of these neo-liberal policies through the cultivation of “cultural anger” and the feeling of loss of the deep spirit of the America. [...]

[...] The author sees in it a kind of self suicide, because in his own imagery and this is actually confirmed by the history of the 20th century; it is the Democratic Party that best represents the interests of weak and the victimized”. So, how can such a non-sense occur? His answer is symptomatic of the recent evolution of the US-politics: “this is what American political life is all about”. In fact, what characterizes the current politics in the States is the wide predominance of cultural issues rather than class or economic issues. This reorganization has led to a huge and entire reverse of the political bases of the Democrats and Republicans. [...]