Last week NewMexiKen read Thomas Frank’s exceeding insightful analysis of why social conservatives vote against their apparent economic best interests — What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. I recommend it highly for observations such as this:
Although the Cons [Conservative Republicans] vituperate against the high and the mighty, the policies they help exact—deregulating, privatizing—only serve to make the Mods [Moderate Republicans] higher and mightier still…. For decades Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting…. The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their first at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawood toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. “We are here,” they scream, “to cut your taxes.”