"What's the Matter with Kansas?"

A friend at work loaned me Thomas Frank's book and I've finally finished it, although I have to admit it was sort of a struggle, since even with a journalism degree from Mizzou and an MBA I needed a dictionary to read it. He likes big words and so do I but I think he is trying too hard to look smart, which, quite honestly, I find exhausting.

Frank, from his high, high perch looks down on sad little Kansas. He never admits that he could actually be seen as one of those blue-stater, liberal intellectual elitists that conservative Kansans dislike so much (he has a PhD from the University of Chicago). Since he grew up in the comfortable confines of Prairie Village he probably doesn't know much about one of the only "blue" counties in Kansas -- that would be the home of that NASCAR track he mentions and my current home, Wyandotte County. After all, I can see how the Democratic machine in Wyandotte County has so lovingly served the populace there -- it's one of the poorest counties in Kansas. And this is a county that didn't produce one single Republican mayorial candidate but did manage to yield nine Democrats. He never mentioned any of that. Nor did he menton how the Democratic government happily drifted toward the middle to catch the track and the ensuing economic boom it's providing, all while uprooting roughly 100 families from their homes. Or how the Democratic candidates are currently courting the religious community for the upcoming election.

In truth, some Kansans should probably vote for the Democratic party, since many of these guys are still trying to scrape out a living farming and the Republicans are not farm-friendly. But I guess what I find sad is that Thomas Frank lends no credibilty at all to the idea that social and religious ideals might be more important that economic ones. There are a lot of people here that believe this life is just practice and the part that really matters is what you stand for -- family, God, protecting unborn babies. Thomas Frank thinks this is wrong, I guess. He most assuredly finds it embarrasing. He gets a kick out of laughing at political candidates who mention God, prayer or any divine assistance they may have or may be receiving. I guess if you're smart, you should know better than the believe in God -- or invoke the name of Jesus in public.

He also seems to go way out of his way to describe the Johnson County suburbs in the worst possible light, a practice I don't get, since I do the majority of my shopping in Shawnee. (WYCo has few to no services, although the dreaded NASCAR track for which our Democratic mayor and city council prostituted us is starting to attract a large number of businesses.) He describes a church I used to attend as "ramshackle" (web definition: bedraggled: in deplorable condition; "a street of bedraggled tenements"; "a broken-down fence"; "a ramshackle old pier"; "a tumble-down shack"). I attended church there for a year -- thought it was a pretty nice place.

What I can't fault is the miserable state of small towns everywhere -- not just those in Kansas. Of course, small towns have been in decline for decades, even before the farm crisis of the 1980s. But I would argue that towns are rusting and collapsing because they have no jobs, not because the ones they have don't pay well.

Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough or well-read enough to go toe-to-toe with Mr. Frank and I guess I'm just blowing off some steam here. I'm not going to go so far as to say he's wrong. On some issues he might be very on-target. But what I do know is that for all his research he still doesn't understand that having faith doesn't make you a wingnut and big business and a free market economy didn't create all of the economic ills he describes.

If anyone reads this book, tell me what you think.