> The real change in Kansas is not that it's Republican, but that its
> Republicans, like all Republicans, have drastically changed their center
> of gravity since they incorporated the South. The most famous Kansan
> Republican is Ike, who today is most people's model of a reasonable
> centrist. His brothers, all Republicans, stretched from liberal Milton
> who was almost a Democrat, heading up FDR's education department, to
> reactionary Edmund who was to the right of Patton. Back then Milton and
> Ike were famous and nobody heard of Edmund. Now the Edmunds seem to be
> all you hear about.
Interesting analysis.
It's important to understand that Kansas is not just another "red state". It's not even a hot bed for the religious right--try Missouri, it seems to have more Baptists and mega-churches for starters.
If you look closely at the voting results from the 2004 presidential election, Kansas is far more purple than Nebraska and Oklahoma. The latter is one state around here that I wouldn't want to live. OK is solid Republican country.
Kansas is in some ways a gateway state to the Republican western rural states. It is losing that status in some respect to Missouri, which used to be a standard Democrat southern state but has been more consistently Republican in recent years.
I'll pause here to point out--from my anarchist perspective--that there is no difference between the two major parties, so this Red State-Blue State talk is entrely useless.
Kansas was known at one time for its populism. It still retains that flavor to a lesser extent. For example, Ross Perot won several counties in southern Kansas during the 1984 election. Kansas also has a large number of liberal and libertarian Republicans.
The Republican base in Kansas really depends on rural areas, but seeing how rural Kansas has been depopulated, the type of Republicans that Thomas Frank talks about--the breed that supports Bush and listens to Rush--are found more in the urban areas. It used to be that in presidential elections, the counties containing Wichita, Topeka Lawrence, and KCK would always go Democrat. I'm not sure about this, but I think in the last election that Wichita and Topeka went for Bush.
The encouraging news is that Johnson County, the rich suburban county where I live, has moved slowly away from being a Republican stronghold to being more of a "purple" county. It kind of helps that liberals and progressives have moved here from other parts of the country.
Let me conclude by again pointing out that if people want to fight back against the Republicans, a little money and resources out here will go a long way.
Chuck