Driving Votes: Matt's Blog - Archived Entry

Amanda, an old friend of mine from Kansas, sent an email to the Driving Votes group about an article in the April issue of Harper’s magazine that tells the story of how the Republican Party is ruining Kansas and the Midwest.

I lived in Kansas for 18 years and there is no doubt that life there is getting worse and worse. Walmart has destroyed most of the local stores by undercutting their prices, big agribusiness has put all of the family farms out of business, the crime rates have skyrocketed, nobody seems to have health care-- the only people that have benefited from the fall of the Midwest are the people running the big businesses.

It’s no wonder that the folks I grew up with want to return to the past: a time when there were stronger family values and the opportunity to earn a decent living, a time when we weren’t scared of terrorists. People in Kansas don’t like the idea of big government because frankly they’ve been screwed in some sense by every administration. The irony is that it’s big business that’s ruining Kansas, not big government.

Thomas Frank, the author of the article in Harper’s who is also from Kansas, explains how the Republicans have convinced America that Democrats are pampered intellectual snobs from the coasts. He talks about how Republicans use cultural and moral issues such as banning gay marriage or fighting terrorism to rile people up while they quietly roll back taxes for the rich and give the corporations the freedom they need to continue pillaging the Midwest. The richest cities in Kansas and the poorest cities all vote Republican.

Why do the people I grew up with in Kansas, who get screwed over and over by the big business that George Bush supports, keep voting Republican? Why do all the people in Kansas without healthcare want a President that will never give them healthcare? How can people watch the cities around them crumble because of Walmart and agribusiness and then vote for the most corporate-loving President we’ve ever seen? Why do the citizens of Kansas move even further to the Right as things get worse and worse for them?

I think Thomas Frank is onto something. When the Republicans tie good old family values to the economic policies that are ruining this country, the Midwest loses. I’m not sure what good family values are when you don’t have a job and can’t take your kids to the doctor but the CEOs of big companies are flying around in their own airplanes. Let’s not blame single mothers when kids are out committing violent crimes, let’s blame the fact that those kids know they aren’t going to get a decent job where they're respected. I know folks in Kansas are angry about the decline in family values, but let’s not blame the gay couple getting married, let’s blame the corporations that are ruining our hometowns.