by Joseph Burgess
Have you read the best-selling book from a few years ago, What's the Matter with Kansas? - or a synopsis or some excerpts from it?
Well, if you're not familiar with the book or have forgotten what it's all about, in a nutshell, it's this --
It's an analysis of one of the of the poorer states, Kansas, and its continually voting for politicians who back corporations and the wealthy instead of the interests of the majority of its own citizens. Kansas native son and former Young Republican Thomas Frank marvels in his book that his state's farmers and wage-earners dig their own economic graves at the ballot box year after year, riled up by hot-button social issues that the politicians they elect have little power (and probably no inclination so that the issues remain for the next election) to change.
Another book that was recently published (June, 2008) may very well have a bottom-line answer not only to the question of what's the matter with Kansas, but the answer to the question of what's the matter with America.
Think about it. In 1972 (Nixon's re-election), 1984 (Reagan's re-election), 1988 (Bush I's election), and 2004 (Bush II's re-election), wage-earners, salaried middle-class, and small businesspeople throughout the country joined with Kansans in digging their own economic graves. They also were riled up (especially in 1984 and later) by hot-button social issues and (in 2004) worried about bogeymen manufactured by the so-called Republicans to scare the electorate into voting for them as their only possible protectors. (Does that seem similar to what John McCain and his handlers are doing now on the heels of George W. Bush and his handlers?)
The recently published book is Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. The author is Rick Shenkman, an associate professor of history at George Mason University and the founder and editor of History News Network. It tells us a lot about what's wrong with our collective selves. And like what Frank tells us in his book that followed Kansas, which is entitled What's the Matter with America? - it ain't pretty and it sure is worrisome.
What's ugly and worrisome is that too many Americans are largely ignorant, shortsighted, and swayed by meaningless phrases and phantoms. Shenkman and his book tell us how a nation that is misinformed and accepts the misinformation as fact (in large part due to corporate television and right-wing radio "hosts") ends up pursuing failed policies. Shenkman thinks things could get better if we start dealing honestly with the problem.
Of course, the question remains: Will that happen if not making things better profits and keeps in power the politicians who gain the most from the status quo?
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