paraphrastic redux - sfa - July 2004, parts that seem relevant to possible argument. Thomas Frank What's the Matter with Kansas? (book) Intro - What's the Matter with America? ---- [paragraph# (page# first word)] 1 (p1 the) In 2000, G.W.Bush carried the poorest county in America by a greater than 80% majority. 2 (p1 this) Some persons, including Frank think that a basic part of being a proper adult is understanding that the Democrats are the party that promotes the interests of workers, the poor, the weak and the victimized. One person asked the author "How can anyone who has ever worked for someone else vote Republican?" 3 (p1 her) In many ways this is the question of our times. Our civic order is based upon a derangement, namely people "getting" their fundamental interests wrong. [Paragraph 77 says this derangement in people is their not knowing where their interests lie or not trying to get what they want.] This derangement has caused the election of high officials and the dominance of federal government by Republicans. It has also caused "the Democrats" to become more like "the Republicans". 4 (p2 if) Individuals earning more than $300,000 yearly have especially benefited from the derangement. These benefits were caused by some indigent High Plains Republicans voting against their own self-interests. 5 (p2 or) Also, "many, many" millions of average-income Americans do not regard "this" as deranged. [Does he mean by "this" the voting against self-interest?] 6 (p2 maybe) [nothing of significance] 7 (p3 maybe) [nothing of significance] 8 (p3 nearly) [nothing of significance] 9 (p3 take) [story begun about the family of a friend of Frank's from an unnamed midwestern city - starts in Reagan's 1981] 10 (p4 my) [story continued] The friend was a Republican in high school but his father supported George McGovern and voted for Barbara Jordan. 11 (p4 it) [story continued] The father has changed; he now habitually votes for Republicans as far-right as are running. His views on abortion caused this change. Incidentally, Bill O'Reilly said that the teacher's union "does not love America." 12 (p4 his) That father's progression of attitudes was similar to that of the whole town. Republican economic policy ruined the city and "the townsfolk responded" by addressing cultural issues. That city now "looks like" Detroit but smaller. 13 (p5 this) The "Great Backlash" is a political style that tries to rouse voters by provoking public outrage over explosive social issues, then [somehow] intimately relates it to pro-business economic policy which is its end-purpose to achieve. The recent international "free-market consensus" was made possible by the backlash. Even when Republicans' appealing economic promises go unmet, Republicans are reelected because of Backlash. There are global consequences to offensive instances of art because of Backlash. 14 (p5 the) There has been a laissez-faire revival because of the Great Backlash. 15 (p6 in) Cultural values matter more than economics, according to the backlash movement. This approach attracts voters whom Frank thinks would otherwise have voted differently. But although these cultural values are the subject of conservative exhortation to the public, in office conservatives do not care about those values, and instead desire change only in economic policy. The backlash is a working-class movement that harms working-class people. 16 (p6 the) The backlash has existed for decades. Without exception, elections are disputed in terms of cultural values, but when backlash candidates are in office they give priority to "the needs of money" [does he mean the interests of the wealthy here?]. [He then states the non-sequiturs that in fact abortion and affirmative action continue. He also cites Christopher Lasch's judgement that Reagan was a politician of this type.] 17 (p7 this) [elaboration of the above idea- nothing new significant] 18 (p7 backlash) There are backlash theorists who imagine conspiracies among the wealthy and powerful. The backlash has devastated the interests of Middle America. This movement eliminated inheritance tax; they made the rich richer; they undermined public education; they opposed labor unions and workplace-safety programs (and some of those in the backlash movement were angry when they did this). 19 (p8 like) Some leaders of the backlash have undone some of the effects of the "war on poverty" of the 60s, and of labor law, agricultural price support, and banking regulation. Some leaders want to undo estate tax and antitrust measures. 20 (p8 as) It often happens that a liberal observer doubts the existence of the backlash because it seems to be an improbable and inconsistent "formula" for maintaining a political coalition between business and blue-collar groups, whom they expect should be antagonistic. These observers tend to dismissively misinterpret the Great Backlash as comprising one of several intellectually and morally negligible groups. 21 (p8 but) These observers therefore do not appreciate the power of the backlash as an idea, nor its vitality among diverse demographics. 22 (p9 it) Fueled by alarmist rage that ignores current world events, the backlash has thrived for decades while liberal leadership and labor unions decline. 23 (p9 along) Original "genuine" [Does he mean unhypocritical politicians?] and grassroots elements of the backlash have become changed into parts of an undeliberative machine that reacts to alarmist announcements of moral threats by producing votes for backlash candidates. 24 (p9 my) The author intends a thorough examination of the backlash and an understanding of the widespread derangement. Kansas serves as a paradigm because of the extreme change it has undergone from source of leftist reformism into a population eagerly receptive to backlash nonsense. Some conservative "high priests" [leaders? apologists? theorists?] would be uncomfortable believing that the political success of conservatives is due to the deceptive practice of persuading people to vote based on non-economic cultural values. They believe, or perhaps try to make themselves believe, that that their economic measures have been adopted legitimately. 25 (p10 from) [nothing of significance] ======