Thomas Frank in What's the Matter with Kansas:
Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers - when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists' furthest imaginings -- when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work -- you could be damned sure about what would follow.
Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.
Why? Because Republicans have convinced people that government can't make a difference in their lives, can't solve their intractable problems, hence the only thing that matters are divisive social issues. The demands that government be ineffective has been a planned hallmark of the Bush administration. You don't put a horse lawyer in charge of FEMA if you expect the agency to actually be effective in its mission. So as far as conservative ideology was concerned, Katrina was a resounding success.
This ineffectiveness is centerpiece in conservative self-preservation. If government becomes more effective and works for people, then it could prove devastating to conservatives. William Kristol wrote a now-famous memo as conservatives geared up to fight Hillary Clinton's universal healthcare efforts in 1993:
Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to "kill" — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party.
And just last year, National Review writers Ramesh Ponnuru and Richard Lowry echoed those sentiments:
[2008 Republican defeats] would probably also mean a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future.
Down in Austin I did a short segment on MSNBC's Road to the White House where I was asked such tripe as "what would Obama die for" and "can Obama win without the left?" I did the interview from a remote studio -- just a room with a camera, several backdrops depending on the kind of interview, and a satellite uplink to the network. The networks pay these studios for the time guests are on.
There was one middle-aged woman working the operation that day, roughly 50 years old. The TV was on the background and I heard "Obama" and "Afghanistan" in the same sentence. I asked, "Oh, is Obama already in Afghanistan?" She shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't followed the news."
I stayed quiet, because ill and desperate for sleep, I thought I might squeeze a quick catnap before my segment came on. But the woman continued on her own. "I'm really disenchanted with McCain." Oh, I responded, was she an Obama person? "No, I don't like him either. I don't trust him. And my daughter, she hates him."
I inquired further, why? "Because he's not patriotic, with the flag pin and the pledge of allegiance and his wife!" So we determined that she wasn't going to vote, which was disappointing to American democracy, but good for us because she had been a reliable Republican voter. My interest piqued, I dug a little further: given how the economy was going, people losing their homes, the cost of gas through the roof, none of that was as important as a flag pin?
"Well, they can't do nothing about those things." Aha. The Frank theory, of course. Well, I responded, what about health care, are you happy with your health care? She lit up, "I know no one who is happy with their health care!" and then segued into a rant about the disgraceful state of the health care system. Well, I responded, Democrats are working for universal healthcare, but Republicans have gotten in the way. But we'll be able to do it next year.
"Ain't no one who can fix that stuff," she sighed, slumping. That brief expression of fire and brimstone snuffed out in an instant. She was adamant that it was all hopeless. Fair enough. She didn't look like someone who'd had an easy life. Health care had touched a nerve, so who knows what sad story or stories she had to tell on that front. But Republicans had convinced her that government was powerless to do anything about it, so ... flag pins!
I had one last argument up my sleeve. Look, I get it, I told her, government hasn't given us many reasons to be confident of late. I can certainly empathize. But can we make a deal? If Democrats push through universal health care in the next four years, will you vote for Barack Obama in 2012?
She looked initially uncomfortable at the thought, but after a pause and a brief internal struggle, she softened and said, "Yeah, I will."
That, in a nutshell, is what Kristol and Ponnuru and Lowry and every conservative in this country fears the most.
