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Among the Intellectualoids
What’s the Matter With Thomas Frank?
He hasn’t changed, even if the new documentary based on his book undercuts the book’s patronizing arguments.
Directed by Joe Winston and Laura Cohen, the documentary version of Thomas Frank’s book What’s The Matter With Kansas? has just been released. Its timing could not be better given the new level of honesty that many liberal pundits have descended to in recent months.
As the American public has become more and more opposed to President Obama’s agenda, many in the intelligentsia have responded with outright condescension and contempt.
When polls showed that a majority of Americans though the stimulus had been wasted Joe Klein of Time thundered, “It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you’re a nation of dodos.” When Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., suggested turning Medicare into a voucher system through which seniors would purchase their own insurance policies, Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic claimed “it’s not clear how many seniors really have the ability to navigate the world of health care with the sort of sophistication to really hunt down the most cost-effective care, even if, as Ryan promises, they’d have more information at their disposal.” Richard Cohen recently lamented that the one of the main reasons health care reform hadn’t passed was that “the country suffers from a surfeit of democracy.” Frustrated that cap-and-trade legislation was going no where in the U.S. Senate, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman let off a bizarre missive in which he claimed that one-party autocracy was better than democracy “when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today.”
What is intriguing about these instances is that they come from people who are usually very circumspect and subtle about their condescension and contempt and worried that they should at least show some respect for the majority of Americans.
One person who has never suffered such compunction is left-wing polemicist Thomas Frank. In 2004, Frank published What’s The Matter With Kansas?, the quintessential lament about people who don’t realize that their true interests are in voting for politicians who support liberal policies.
On page one of his book Frank declares that “People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American political life is all about.” In short, Republicans and conservatives hoodwink much of the middle class, like those good people in Kansas, into believing that what really matters are the social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. In so doing, those people overlook the GOP and conservatives’ economic policies that benefit the wealthy but harm the common folk.
“American conservatism depends on its continued dominance and even for its very existence on people never making connections about the world, connections that until recent were treated as obvious or self-evident everywhere on the planet,” writes Frank. Those connections include the ones “between the small towns (people) profess to love and the market forces that are slowly grinding those small towns backing into the red-state dust.” This “country seems more like a panorama of madness and delusion…of devoted family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or proper health care; of working-class guys in midwestern cities cheering as they deliver up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way of life.”
Frank’s book paints a bleak picture of the Midwest. Yet, somehow, that gets lost in the documentary, to the point that viewers seem to notice. After a showing at Washington D.C.’s E Street Cinema last Friday, Frank and Winston put in an appearance to answer audience questions. One gentleman asked, “The theme of the book…was that people really wound up voting against their own interest. Do you feel that the movie really portrays that?”
Frank’s response was in character: “It’s there in the movie, you sometimes have to keep your eyes open. There are so many beautiful, ironic juxtapositions. You have to keep your eyes open. Look, I’ve seen it twenty times, okay.” He referred to main streets that were boarded up and a scene that shows a crumbling building at the corner of 1st and Main Street.
Yet if phenomenon of people voting against their economic interests is rampant, as Frank claims in the book, then why is it so hard to find in the film? Why do most of the people in the movie seem to be doing rather well financially? Two of the families profiled, the Williards and the Bardens, live in rather nice middle-class homes. The Bardens are able to send their daughter to Patrick Henry College in Virginia. The Williards live in a nice house on a farm. Later in the film, it is reported that the Williard husband loses $300,000 in an investment scheme. While the result is tragic, if the Williards are voting against their economic interests, then how did they have that kind of money to invest in the first place?
Indeed, the movie undermines, albeit unintentionally, Frank’s thesis. The Williard wife, Angel, started living with a man shortly after she left for college. She became pregnant by that man, dropped out of school, and gave birth to a disabled son. The boy’s father was abusive to her, so much so that she contemplated suicide. She eventually asked God for guidance.
Following this, she returned to Kansas, and became involved in religion. Her new lifestyle led her to a husband who works as an emergency room physician, three beautiful daughters and a farm.
In Angel’s experience, it’s not hard to see how social issues are connected to economic experiences. Much research demonstrates that there are few ways that a woman is more likely to trap herself in poverty than by having a child out of wedlock— a fate that Angel nearly suffered. By turning to religion and settling into a family life, she appears to have prospered.
Perhaps the folks in Kansas know a lot better what their interests are than Frank thinks they do.
I asked Frank why his hometown of Shawnee, Kansas, didn’t make an appearance in the film. Also lacking was Johnson County in which Shawnee is located and whose economic situation Frank so laments in his book.
About the Author
David Hogberg is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Follow him on Twitter.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (141) | Leave a comment
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Shamus| 3.22.10 @ 7:37AM
This guy Frank has nothing to say. His column in the Wall Street Journal is a waste of space. His ideas are pretty much incoherent.
Howard| 3.22.10 @ 8:47AM
I agree with you about Frank and his weekly WSJ Column "The Tilting Yard". Frank seems to mail in his columns. Compared to most of the other columnists who seem to have some facts and statistics to buttress their opinions, Thomas Frank is all polemics. The WSJ should consider replacing him with a better qualified liberal (oxymoron) .
John Navratil| 3.22.10 @ 12:37PM
Who could be "better qualified" than Frank? The man believes his own B-S. Isn't that the definition?
mikroenjeksiyon | 10.4.10 @ 5:33AM
Was a beautiful page. Thanks to the designers and managers.
Amit_Gold | 2.13.13 @ 2:43PM
It's a great informative artical, regardless of his dumb beliefs.
Bilwick| 3.22.10 @ 8:31AM
Thomas Frank is simply carrying on the work of his ancestor, the Tory flack Sir Thomas Frank, who in 1776 wrote the original anti-Tea Party broadside, "What's the Matter with Massachuetts? Or: Why These Insolent Peasants Should Simply Shut Up and Let us Bugger Them." Old Sir Thomas would be proud of him.
Jack Olson| 3.22.10 @ 8:45AM
I read Frank's book, so I doubt I'll bother watching the movie. His thesis is that Republicans exploit voters' attitudes on social issues like same-sex marriage to win undeserved victories on economic issues like taxation: "Wake up, you fools, and tax the daylights out of the fatcats!"
There are two flaws in his argument. First, the average voter has no faith that he won't end up paying the taxes which he was promised would only tax the rich. That's what happened with the Alternative Minimum Tax, isn't it? Second, he has even less faith that the tax money thus collected would be spent on him. More likely, it will be "from each according to his income, to each according to his campaign contributions." That's what happened with farm subsidies, isn't it? Most farm subsidy money goes to people with wealth far above average. That average voter has learned what Frank has not, that what the average voter gets from his government is rarely what he was promised.
Pete| 3.22.10 @ 10:43AM
Add to that the fact that the average midwestern voter doesn't see suckling at the teat of federal government as a good thing and doesn't wish to be better off at the expense of his fellow man. All you have to do is look at Franks's picture next his column to know what you would get if you read the article (I read it twice and won't ever do it again). Even in black and white grainy pixels in the WSJ, you can see the condescending smirk and air of intellectual superiority. I would pay to punch him in the face.
maximumrandb| 3.22.10 @ 3:32PM
In his WSJ portrait he looks like he's going to cry. And his writing comes across so whiny. He is actually worse than the WSJ's previous token liberal/weenie, Al Hunt.
astorian| 3.22.10 @ 10:35AM
Thomas Frank’s argument comes down to this: “The social issues don’t matter! All that matters is economic self-interest! Anyone who forsakes his own economic self-interest and casts his vote based on social issues is a deluded idiot!”
Okay… so, what does that make Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand? They’re rich, so they should be voting for the Republicans, who offer them tax cuts. The Hollywood Left regularly votes against its own economic self-interest, based on the social issues that Thomas Frank tells us don’t really matter.
I await his next book, "What’s Wrong With Hollywood?"
betty | 3.22.10 @ 11:22AM
Mega dittos! I, for one, can't stand to be lectured by the likes of Jim Carry (20 mil per pic) about the "greed" in this country.
Petronius| 3.22.10 @ 10:50AM
Frank and his ilk should be boiled in monkey piss. The primary interest of every Real American is to accumulate enough wealth and concentrate the power necessary to keep him and all others who Can't Understand Normal Thinking out of our lives.
Richard| 3.22.10 @ 11:27AM
So it is wrong to do something against one's economic self-interest? Like every soldier who volunteers for a few dollars a month to fight and suffer for his country? Like every volunteer EMT, fireman, or rescue worker who leaves his job to help others? Maybe there are more important things than making money. What a shallow dolt this guy is!!
Reformed Activist| 3.22.10 @ 11:36AM
I read Frank's book, and used to agree with the theory that conservatives were using God, Gays and Guns to rile the troops and allow the fatcats to run wild. I remember Bush 41 going on and on about "family values" which made me want to puke, thus I voted for BJ Clinton. (I was 20, I knew nothing). Conservatives did lose their way. I wish Bush 43 had spent more time talking about limited government, the role of government (it doesn't exist to redistribute wealth) and the free market rather than gay marriage. I hope Peggy Noonan is happy that she voted for "change." In a way, we have her to thank, because more people are becoming politically engaged, thanks to all this "stimulus". Maybe there's some hope yet.
Roy| 3.22.10 @ 4:43PM
Evidence please that Bush spent significant time talking about "gay marriage", especially compared to time TALKING ABOUT limited government.
Cubby | 3.22.10 @ 9:40PM
I don't call the prescription drug benefit plan and no child left behind limited government.
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 3.22.10 @ 12:55PM
What's the matter with Thomas Frank? I think the phrase "brain-dead & loving it" about covers it.
Frank Kelly| 3.22.10 @ 12:55PM
I agree with Howard's comment that the WSJ would do well to replace Frank on their op-ed pages with a better qualified liberal. I have a liberal friend who makes much more intelligent argument than does Frank Frank seems to be burdened with the notion that he is a "gate keeper" to the "intelectuals'" club - and of course all members of the club see all issues and even misinterpret history thru the prism of their socialist beliefs.
mickeymat| 3.22.10 @ 2:20PM
I am so flattered. I have been posting this very question in the comment section of every article Frank has written for the Wall Street Journal for months.
name is required| 3.22.10 @ 2:21PM
Like most liberals, Frank is inherently insecure and full of self-loathing. He is ashamed of his roots and felt that while at UVA he was somebody's poor relations, due no doubt to a bad case of class envy. THAT'S what's the matter with Thomas Frank.
lash| 3.22.10 @ 2:56PM
Thomas Frank is yet another detestable, disgusting Democrat who makes his living by telling lies and practicing hypocrisy. It's an easy way to make a comfortable salary until the money runs out. Mr. Frank's idea of "government" produces nothing but regulations and red tape. Mr. Frank's soft little hands will be growing callouses soon enough.
ACynic| 3.22.10 @ 3:49PM
I stopped reading the arrogant, elitist, Marxist-Leninst rants of Frank after about the first two weeks of his WSJ debut.
He is your typical elitist, narcissistic, arrogant, hypocritical communist appartchik.
These lefties are all the same. No one is stopping them from turning over 85% of their income to the govt; but NONE of them do. All of them use every tax dodge they can to minimize taxes. Most of them live in nice fancy homes and drive big, gas guzzling SUVs. They just don't like the unwashed masses to do so.
They all believe that they are natural born leaders to whom we must prostrate ourselves while they provide us with their all knowing leadership - whether we want it or not - as they create their version of heaven on earth.
Of course, this is what Hitler and Stalin and Kim Jong and Castro and Chavez and Obama and Pelosi and Mussolini and Honnecker and Lenin and Marx and Geobbels, and of course, the most famous Kapo of them all, Rahm Emanuel believe. also believe (d).
Roy| 3.22.10 @ 4:44PM
Liberals think the answer to kids out of wedlock is to have them vivisected.
What liberals don't realize is that in that world, ALL kids are out of wedlock.
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Mattled| 3.23.10 @ 1:15AM
I get the WSJ and glance over his "writing". I have written in to WSJ to ask them why they think we should be treated like NYT readers----fed s**t and kept in the dark.
Tommy Frankie------compost.
Didn't read his book and won't see the movie.
Yosemeti Sam| 3.23.10 @ 1:30AM
" ... For Frank it is axiomatic the leftist ideas lead to better economic results than conservative ones...."
Attaboy Frank!
Behold Mexifornia!
Behold saltless New York!
Liberal nirvanas - leaden examples.
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Matt| 4.17.10 @ 10:22AM
Is it wrong to do something against one's economic self-interest? I mean every soldier who volunteers for a few dollars a month to fight and suffer for his country does it. So does every volunteer EMT, fireman, or rescue worker who leaves his job to help others. Maybe there are more important things than making money. I can't believe what a shallow dolt this guy is!
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Matt Gold
Robert| 7.3.10 @ 11:48AM
Lots of complaining and character disparagement here, but no facts to refute any of Frank's arguments in the book. Who are the whiners now? Just laziness...
Dave Brull| 7.28.10 @ 1:01PM
I doubt that more than one or two of the posters to this thread have ever set foot in the state of Kansas. Having been raised there and having seen the changes over the last couple of generations, I can confirm Mr. Frank's premise. Yes, there are those that are doing quite well, but the politics they promote have been nearly universally destructive to the idyllic rural life they champion-- to the point that many Kansas counties are rapidly depopulating as the elders dies off and the younger ones race to leave.
Peter| 9.29.10 @ 4:26AM
Thomas Frank is simply carrying on the work of his ancestor, the Tory flack Sir Thomas Frank, who in 1776 wrote the original anti-Tea Party broadside, "What's the Matter with Massachuetts? Or: Why These Insolent Peasants Should Simply Shut Up and Let us Bugger Them." Old Sir Thomas would be proud of him.
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Note Buyer | 10.3.10 @ 3:29PM
It continues to amaze me what the politicians, main stream media and pundits think of Joe and Jane voter. They think we are all stupid and while our inept education system is doing its best to bring this to fact, many if not most voters, even those dazed by Obama during the campaign trail now know he has his own agenda and it looks a lot different than what he promised. Many are only wishing the Presidency only lasted 2 years. I can only hope after November, he will be severely limited in what additional damage he can do to this country.
Trevor Dahl| 10.23.10 @ 12:12AM
Having lived in Johnson County for the last six years, Frank's premise is a joke. The suburbs comprising Johnson County are some of the more affluent ones in the entire midwest. They are a very productive, enterprising people.
I'm assuming that out of intellectual honesty Frank will tackle the issue why people of Detroit keep voting for Democrats. I won't hold my breath.
aiswarya| 10.30.10 @ 2:12AM
Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic claimed "it's not clear how many seniors really have the ability to navigate the world of health care with the sort of sophistication to really hunt down the most cost-effective care, even if, as Ryan promises, they'd have more information at their disposal." Richard Cohen recently lamented that the one of the main reasons health care reform hadn't passed was that "the country suffers from a surfeit of democracy
nezil| 11.14.10 @ 1:20AM
it's good and more informational article .
Criminal Record Search| 11.24.10 @ 1:18PM
I wish Bush 43 had spent more time talking about limited government, the role of government (it doesn't exist to redistribute wealth) and the free market rather than gay marriage. I hope Peggy Noonan is happy that she voted for "change."
Criminal Record Search
Dyson DC25 | 12.3.10 @ 10:27AM
I have to say that I agree with Shamus....
karooraan | 1.6.11 @ 8:04PM
When we know about Thomas Frank,it amazes more.Actually his books are containing so many useful matters .
Black Matt| 2.14.11 @ 12:23PM
Kevin Carson would be a fine substitute, as evidenced by this excellent critique from the left of Thomas Frank...
http://c4ss.org/content/6102
"In hinting at the pro-business vs. pro-market distinction, of course, Frank scored at least an oblique hit on an important point: The so-called “libertarian” wing of the conservative movement, for the most part, is more pro-business than pro-market. As he suggested himself, if you examine their agenda closely, despite all the rhetoric it’s not really about whether government is big or small. It doesn’t matter so much what size government is as who it helps out. What they mean by “pro-market” is a big government that helps out business interests.
"But Frank himself ignores this same distinction in all three of his books. In each of them — One Market Under God, What’s the Matter with Kansas?, and The Wrecking Crew — Frank equates the corporate economy untold dozens of times to “the free market” or “laissez-faire,” and denounces corporate mercantilists like the folks at Heritage, AEI and FreedomWorks as “free market fundamentalists.”
"Big government and big business, for the past 150 years, have engaged in an elaborate kabuki dance in which each presents itself as victim and enemy of — and protector against — the other. But their enmity is about as genuine as that of the “good cop” and “bad cop” in a police interrogation room."
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Thats the peculiarity of America and its people, they are free to air any view they have and most important thing it gets the space in the society rather being suppressed by the state .. that's what a democratic country is all about..
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