“We’re not in Kansas any more”

Finding herself in Oz, Dorothy may not have been in Kansas any more, but we are. We return there every four years.

We're referring to Thomas Frank's still often-cited 2005 book, "What's the Matter With Kansas". Marvelling at how his once populist home state had shifted to its polar opposite, Frank came upon the realization that in presidential election years Republicans regularly switch to social themes — drumming up opposition to abortion, gay marriage, gays in the military, and so on — to appeal to the conservative side of all voters in order to distract from matters of greater concern.

Election over, Republicans then do nothing about these issues and return to their traditional support of business interests, the military, and to cutting back safety net programs, says Frank. By using social issues to stir anger and capture their votes, Republicans cause conservatives "to vote against their own interests", a phrase of his that has become a standard of political vocabulary.

Which is what we are seeing now. Republicans have rushed to change the conversation from the income inequality of the 1% and a public baying for higher taxes on the wealthy to — most recently — outrage against the calumny of Obama's requiring Catholic Church-run organizations to offer insurance plans that pay for contraceptives. Obama plans to "wage war" on the Catholic Church if re-elected, said Newt Gingrich at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Romney will "reverse every single Obama regulation that attacks our religious liberty". Never mind that 98% of Catholic women reportedly use those contraceptives. Playing to his conservative base who want more religion in politics, Rick Santorum said on ABC's "This Week", "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute".

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