what's the matter with kansas?

looking at this cartoon is just another reminder why many young people flee the middle of the country for the coasts every year. its sad, because out of all the places i grew up (indianapolis, kansas city, wichita, and tulsa) i thought that i met more open minded progressives when i was in college at wichita state. maybe it was because it was everywhere else was still in the stone ages, but as thomas frank points out in what's the matter with kansas, that kansas used to be a pretty progressive place. i still remember the conversations from these 'open minded' friends that quickly devolved into talking points of the religious right. i think its a warning and example of how the media is still very powerful in the middle of the country. i don't think that overnight much of kansas turned into state of hate spewing religious bigots, but given a fearful religious narrative that was repeated in church, radio, newspaper and tv, it probably was a pretty convincing sell.

as lincoln said. "you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

update.... here is the point i think i have not been making so far (talking about religion never comes out the way you want)so where were we? anyway, when i lived in kansas religion was a big part of the culture, but not quite as intrusive as when i lived in tulsa or indiana. the people i knew in kansas were the most open minded and least racist people i had been around (up until that time) and hard work was expected for any type of achievement. its sad that they (the state as a whole) seem to have their buttons pushed and masterfully manipulated which was a precursor (as thomas frank points out) of the bush/rove/cheney debacle that we are in now.