They are voting republican to get even with wall street

[nadinbrzezinski]

yet that phrase is in "What is the matter wiht Kansas." I got the book (FINALLY) today and started readying it and entering a world, as presented, that is very ahem Orwellian and even alien.

let me repeat this again, "they are voting Republican to get even with Wall Street."

Now these are the sme folks who are in many ways going to be against any form of gun control ranging from the Assault Weapons Ban, to background checks, or licencing... only us foreigners and liberal, latte drinkers on the west coast will even sugest something as alien and unamerican as a licensing proceducre for gun owners (never mind we own two, we would have to go get licenced... what bout them apples? And I even had a latte today... and it is cold so I may just get the espresso machine out and make myself another one)

I have not been able to delve too far into the book, but what is clear is that we have had a transformation of historical proportions, farmers and other salt of the earth folk who are PISSED at the decline of culture and have bought the whole culture wars line, hook and sinker, never mind that their own lives, economic lives have gone down the drain

In modern "red America" Somebody like Debbs would have a life expectancy of ten minutes...

So this is a critical book, whether you are talking of the economy or gun control

Oh and at least my local barnes and noble has the hard cover dirt cheap, actually bellow the cost of a soft cover... in fact, will get my brother in law a copy tomorrow

[DURHAM D]

1. Actually I grew up in Kansas and have read the book.

When my extended family votes Rethug there are two important things going on:

1) They are voting against those people they see as looking down their noses at them, the people that they think see them as hicks. They think the intellectuals, the people on the coasts, the eastern effete snobs, the people with inherited money all think they are better than the farmers and workers in the fly-over states. To some extent the middle country citizens are correct about how they are perceived but completely mis-informed about the party affiliations and true interests of corporate, wealthy and old money east coast families.

2) Simultaneously, they are very trusting that their elected officials are doing the right thing. They truly trust elected officials to work for their state's constituent interests. For that reason they don't really pay much attention to what goes on in D.C. - unless of course their federal elected officials come to be an embarrassment to them or it relates to farm subsidies. About that they are in a complete state of denial about the welfare they receive from the blue states.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Thanks as I read more I am also getting that

it helps to hear this from somebody with boots on the ground

Mu question is... how do we change this?

I mean the contradictions are just amazing

[DURHAM D]

3. For me - I just talk to my family when issues come up.

Ex. Both of my parents have Alzheimers. Whenever an issues comes up with regard to their care, and/or meds, or tax deductions I always point out to my siblings the public policy issue that is impacting our family in a negative way. I remind them of which President did what, what their Senators have done or not done, who was in control of congress at the time a bill was passed, etc.

The dialog with them has only been going on for a couple of years. Everyone thought I was just a wacky liberal. Now, they call and ask me questions. They are paying more attention to legislation. They are paying more attention to policy positions. Also, they are now embarrassed about their two U.S. Senators - Roberts and Brownback. They are finally awake but it has taken a double tragedy in our family to ring their bell.

[lonestarnot]

6. Oh man.

Don't forget to take care of yourself. With one parent I had rough times in Ridgemont Hall getting enough rest. I don't know what your parents care arrangement are, but I know what mine was. Damn it was awful.

[DURHAM D]

8. My Mother has been living in a Special Needs unit since December.

My Dad is living with assistance in the same retirement community and will be sharing her room within the year. My sister is carrying most of the weight because she lives in our hometown. She spends her days chasing mistaken medicine orders, going with them to Doctor's appointments, handling insurance problems, paying bills, looking for information my father has lost, doing their laundry, etc.

We are extremely fortunate that they have the means (for now) to be cared for by ways other than living with a family member. Still, I fly home every 4-5 weeks to just help out - run errands, meet with the facility administrators, accountants, attorneys, doctors, etc. And, even though we have institutional help with their care I would guess that among us children we spend 50-60 hours each week on issues dealing with our parents care and finances. I know we are lucky - it could be so much more difficult and we are grateful that our parents planned for the worse case scenario, even though they believed it would not happen to them.

They have had a good life (happily and contentedly married 67 years) and provided us opportunity - taking care of them is the least we can give back.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. You are a good kid

and I truly feel for you.

I wish at times we lived closer to ours.

By the way, thanks for the info

Been readying

[lonestarnot]

11. Blessings to you and your family, particularly your sister in your hometown.

:hug:

[DURHAM D]

15. Thank God for her.

She is very stoic - not much of a talker. We are both from the "peace at any price" generation. In my case it didn't work but in her case it took.

So, for Christmas I gave her a video cam - now we talk several times a week for hours. She has learned to download in order to reload and has learned the joys of ranting - mostly about the health care facility and the doctors.

Also, she has four small grandchildren scattered all over the world and she has provided her children with video cams so she is getting to watch them (as am I) weekly as they grow.

For our family being able to communicate by cell phone, IMing in a group, video cams, email has been a life saver. The experience of taking care of our parents has brought all of us closer. Decisions are made by committee so my sister does not ever carry an unnecessary burden.

We were all just going our separate ways in different parts of the country but now we are a family.

[ComerPerro]

5. I have to disagree

Its not that these people are going to trust that elected officals are doing the righ thing, and that they don't pay attention to what goes on in DC. If that were the case, they would have been just as content with Democrats.

Many of them decided long ago that they will believe anything a conservative tells them as long as the conservative remembers to mention God and the decline of society.

[DURHAM D]

7. The people I know, grew up with and are related to are not

conservatives - they would never define themselves in that way or just accept that as the applicable label. They self-define as moderate - while consistently voting R.

Also, they are of mainstream faiths predominately Methodist, some Lutherans, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Roman Catholic - the God thing is not a trump card for them. Only one or two counties in the southeast part of the state are predominately Southern Baptist.
In fact, Brownback's religious zealotry evokes a lot of chuckles.

[ComerPerro]

4. the most valuable parts of that book are where he details out

the "backlash mentality", as he calls it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Yep going through that part

taken a slight break.

What I have come out from it so far is that I have no idea when the backlash aganst the backlash will come

but when it does, it is not going to be pretty

[Honeycombe8]

12. Thank goodness the red states folks don't read.

I'm not familiar with the book, but I'm from a red state, and I currently live in another red state. Sure, the red news media read...and write, too! But the average red folk doesn't read much. Being too smart is against their religion or something.

As I heard on red radio today on the way home from work, the guest, who was a red guy filled with hatred, started his ranting speech by saying, "I didn't go to college because I was busy learnin' the real world." It went downhill from there.

Note: I listen to red radio on occasion to know what the other side is saying and listening to. It's scary.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Actually fits the backlash culture

that Frank describes

By the way, he ain't a west (left) coaster who drinks lattes, he grew up in Kansas and lives in Chicago

So nope, he ain't one of them foreigners from blue state murica

Which by the way is an artifical construct.. courtesy of the fine media

But here is the irony... Populism emerged there. Debbs, labor organizing, the peace and freedom party and social security are inventions of that red state america, not part of them fereigners that they love to make fun off these days... so you should ask... what are they so angry about (wall street) and how the hell have they been persuaded to vote for wall street?

I highly recommend the book. Perhaps in the privacy of your home.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. kick