[lbo-talk] Perlstein on the "Wal-Mart voters"

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Wed Dec 3 10:10:32 PST 2003


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Chuck0 wrote:
>
>> Granted, Kansas City has gotten more liberal than it was 15 years ago,
>> but this is still Republican country.
>
>
> Really? Tom Frank is writing a book about Kansas, his home state, and
> says it's gotten more conservative. How's KC gotten more liberal?

I'm basing this on my impressions and not on any consistent effort to examine the politics around here. But things look more liberal if one looks at the newspapers, what's being left around bookstores and libraries, and who is getting elected from around here. Kansas City has not become a hotbed of liberalism, but it does seem more liberal and cosmopolitan since I left here 15 years ago. I suspect that some of this has to do with all the transplanted new residents who moved here during the booming 80s and 90s.

Kansas has always been a Republican state, but if you look at it more closely, it has some strong populist roots. Just take a look at the election results from the presidential election which included Ross Perot. It's kind of laughable that Perot the millionaire is a populist, but he was seen as a populist during that election. Perot won several counties in Kansas in that election.

What Kansans really need to do--and they need help from elsewhere--is to boot that right wing asshole Jim Ryun from office. If you wonder where the future John Ashcroft's are comign from, Ryun is one of those scary pro-life zealots that doesn't belong anywhere near an elected office.

Back in the 1980s, I counterprotested a pro-life march that he led by walking alongside their march with a coat hanger held above my head. If you don't take on the Jim Ryuns, Bill Whites, and David Horowitizes early on, they up up becoming a John Ashcroft headache.

<< Chuck0 >>

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