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Whats the Matter with Kansas? The economical and class-consciousness conflict between social classes of America in general and Kansas in particular becomes the issue of the day, claims Thomas Frank, the author of a well-known book Whats the matter with Kansas? According to the author, the conflict between poor farmers and workers versus lawyers, advocates, bankers, and big corporations gradually turns into confrontation between hard-working devotees of America and decadent Liberals, who scoff at patriotism, support abortions and homosexuality. The main economic interest of populist conservatives is to get rid of almighty powerful country that imposes taxes upon its population in order to finance its own regulating measures and undertakings. They adhere to position to implement an economic program under the slogan less taxes, less regulations. At the same time, average American citizen considers that economic reality is based on rational concern for peoples welfare, taking into account personal interests of population.
From his standpoint, populist conservatives make a mistake and pave the way to economic collapse. Attrition of taxes and absence of control from the direction of state authorities means boundless freedom for huge corporations that undertake all effort to force out impoverished farmers from the market. Secondly, such position minimizes possibility of intervention from the direction of state authorities that, in its turn, leads to decrease in federal help to private entrepreneurs. However, ardent populists treat the government as a foreign structure that influences negatively on welfare of its citizens. No wonder that huge corporations support these fanatic attacks and encroachments on the state authorities, especially when the government tries to regulate mergers of media-companies or activity of fuel and energy concerns, to bring into action strict standards for pollution, to protect nature, to limit the deforestation in national parks, to mention a few. The present situation reminds us a quirk of fate: radical individualism serves the justification of the fact that the majority of population feels the invisible power of government that controls their lives and keeps vigilant watch over their activity.
What concerns ideological aspect of their contraposition, Frank considers that populists wage the war that has no victors. He claims that if the Republicans would really decide to prohibit abortions, or if they would like to ban the theory of evolution, or to implement federal regulation in Hollywood, it could result not only in global mobilization of their political opponents, but also to large-scale economical crisis in the United States. In such a way, mutually remission symbiosis comes to pass: federal authorities do not agree with populists position concerning their copy-book maxims, but at the same time the government use populists in order to control the lower social classes. The war of morality gives an opportunity to the lower classes to express their opinion concerning moral values without interfering in their main economic interests.
In other words, cultural war reminds us the class war where one model replaces the other. Thomas Frank dwells on strategy, with the help of which Republicans have transformed themselves from an aristocratic minority into the nation's dominant political party (Frank 2004). The author adduces an argument that these thoughts make the mystery more difficult to understand. Frank tries to find out the roots of such replacing.
According to him, stupidity and ideological manipulation cannot give a proper answer to this question. Frank says that dozens of years ago Kansas was the centre of progressive populism, and a place well-known for its radicalism, and people couldnt grow too stupid so quickly. Frank doesnt agree with explanation provided by Ernest Locklaw who considered that social-economic position has no natural relation to ideological position. In such a way, it is impossible to speak about substitution of values and false conscientiousness, taking into account the fact that the level of ideological conscientiousness corresponds to certain social-economic status of a citizen. Every ideological doctrine is the result of attempt to impose its own point of view (economical, democratic, ecological, feminists, anti-racism, etc) and is not stipulated by target social-economic situation.
First of all, we have to note that cultural war requires several ingredients. Culture is the main ideological concern of Liberals, who dispute racism, sexism, and fundamentalism and support multicultural tolerance. The meaning of word culture is closely related to the status of religious belonging. We do not believe in the original meaning of the concept; we participate in religious rituals and follow the rules as a token of respect for society and traditions. People consider that they do not believe in something, but obey the rules because it is an integral part of their culture. It is also important to note that although Liberals manifest their solidarity with population of America, their aspiration for multicultural tolerance and womens rights opposes them to the lower social classes.
Frank uses special terminology to comprehend a situation. He dwells on abstract opposition between modernizers (those who support global capitalism in all its aspects, from economical to cultural) and traditionalists (those who resist globalization). The category of opponents consists of traditional conservatives, right populists and special elements of old left-wingers (those who protect the concept of state of welfare), trade unions, etc. Thirdly, we need to take into account fundamental differences between feminist, anti-racism, anti-sexism war from the one side, and class struggle from the other side. In the first case the aim is to turn antagonism into peaceful co-existence of sexes, religions and ethnic groups, whereas the aim of class struggle is completely different. According to Frank, in case we put on a par with race, sex and class, we will retouch a peculiar logic of class struggle.
In one case the logic is horizontal, that implies mutual acknowledgement of different values, whereas in the other case we trace the logic of struggle with the antagonist. The paradox is that Democrats adhere to strict fiscal policy that put an end to budget deficit and (e. g. Blair) support neo-liberal program. Frank tries to understand why the citizens of America vote against their social and political interests.
He explains how the great backlash mobilizes votes with explosive social issues (Frank 2004) and organizes all the facts together in order to give the readers an opportunity to judge and arrange them, marshalling cultural anger to achieve economic ends. Frank claims that several dozens years ago conservatism was the distinguishing feature of class privilege, whereas today it became the creed of overwhelming majority of ordinary citizens of the United States, being a working class movement that has done incalculable harm to the middle class (Frank 2004). The book Whats the matter with Kansas? can be recommended for parties and candidates in the current election cycles, as it focuses attention on confrontation of political parties in America. Actuality of the problem, clarity of presentation and simplicity of the language make the book a useful source of information for a wide circle of readers. The author presents concise and clear interpretation of ideas of false consciousness, social and historical crisis of democracy, claiming that corporate conservatism has consumed states populist past.
Frank uses Kansas as a microcosm of the rest of the nation, and presents the reader a study of the conservative mindset. Such approach allows the author proposing a completely new interpretation of political contraposition based on reliable data received in the course of long-term complex sociological observations and campaign records. References: Frank, Thomas. (2004). What's the Matter with Kansas?
How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Metropolitan Books
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Research essay sample on Whats The Matter With Kansas
