Voting Against Their Own Interests
by Don Sibley
"What's The Matter With Kansas?" How Conservatives Won the Heart of America,
by Thomas Frank, Henry Holt & Co., June, 2004, 320 pages, $24.00
In his very insightful book, What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank
asks why the reactionary response of so many ultra right Americans to what
they call the "intellectual elitism of the liberals" becomes a kneejerk vote
against their own economic and political interests.
Thomas Frank was puzzled, like many of us are, as to why George Bush won the
2000 election by a majority greater than 80% on the Great Plains, a region
of dying farm towns. This derangement he calls the "bedrock of our civic
order." The very wealthy owe thanks to the Great Plains people whose
self-denying votes have assured that the very wealthy no longer have to
contend with the estate tax, interfering bank regulations or annoying labor
unions.
This backlash, Frank claims, was caused by reaction to issues like abortion,
busing, unions, the elite media, and un-Christian art. The reaction then
latched onto pro-business, anti-labor policies. This has made possible
deregulation, privatization, and de-unionization, and set the stage for the
free trade and globalization adventures.
The conservatives of the Great Plains imagine themselves repressed by the
elite Northeast intellectuals, though their heroes control all three
branches of government. The country's "greatest beneficiaries" are the
wealthiest people on earth. Frank has discovered that the leaders of the
backlash may talk the Christian talk but they practice corporatism. They go
on about the importance of values, but when the chips are down, money is
king. Abortion continues to be legal; affirmative action never ends; art is
never forced to clean up its act. What they vote for is to stop abortion;
what they receive is a cut in capital gains taxes.
Frank explores the backlash thoroughly in his home state of Kansas. The
backlash, he says, is a "plague of bitterness," capable of interminable
expansion to so many sectors. On close scrutiny, the country seems to be on
a road to madness. He provides a vision of men in a midwestern city cheering
as they vote in a candidate whose policies will end their way of life,
seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or
proper health care.
Kansas, he says, "is ready to lead us singing into the Apocalypse. It
invites us all to ... lay down our lives so that others may cash out at the
top; to renounce forever our middle-American prosperity in pursuit of a
crimson fantasy of middle-American righteousness."
Don Sibley worked in community development projects in Central America for
27 years.
Back to:
Summer 2005 Peace Talk