By Elisabeth A. Xenos

What’s the Matter With Kansas? How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank is a political piece in which the author explains, in his opinion, why blue-collar Americans, namely Kansans, are more often voting along conservative lines than ever before. In fact, Frank (2004) proclaims, “The more working-class an area is, the more likely it is to be conservative” (p. 104). Author Alfred Lubrano, in his book entitled Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, likewise examines the working-class, yet strictly focuses on the differences between blue- and white-collar workers as opposed to, what he terms, “straddlers.” Lubrano explains that straddlers are middle-class professionals with college educations who lived their childhoods in working-class neighborhoods while being raised by blue-collar parents. The focus of this paper is to examine the relationship between blue-collar folk and the ideology of conservatism by analyzing an interview of “Travis,” a 23-year-old union carpenter who claims, at first, to be a Republican, but later realizes his role as a liberal straddler.

Background

Travis, like many blue-collar raised people, has a certain set of values that distinguishes him as belonging to the working-class. Lubrano, when describing the blue-collar class, mentions several values that Travis relates as his own: “A well-developed work ethic; a respect for your parents; the need for close contact with extended family; loyalty; a sense of daring” (Lubrano, 2004, p. 17). Lubrano tags all of these as blue-collar characteristics. So does Travis. He’s one of the hardest workers at his construction site; he wouldn’t dare back-talk his parents, even at age 23; family, including second and third cousins, comes first; and, Travis says, “There’s nothing better than spending an afternoon riding ATV’s and motorcycles with your best friend [whom you’ve known since preschool].”

As far as his parents’ backgrounds go, Travis reveals that his mother worked as an accountant for the Department of Defense and even completed some courses at a local college to further her career. However, she never finished a degree program. Travis’s father was an over-the-road truck driver who was only home on Tuesday nights and weekends. Travis pauses for a moment, reflecting on his father’s line of work, and says, “That’s about as blue-collar as it gets.”

Travis tells me that his dad is strictly a Republican. Both sides of his family hail the Republican party. Don’t even ask them to describe a Democrat...chances are, one of them will have an aneurism while yelling profanities. Travis’s dad is a Vietnam vet, and he still has unresolved issues with the “uppity hippie rich kids” who protested the war. According to Travis’s family, these “hippies” were bleeding-heart liberals who turned their backs on patriotism and laughed at one of the blue-collar man’s most cherished values: loyalty.

Travis grew up in a mixed household. Mom was a straddler, dad was working-class through and through. ironically, Travis continued in his father’s blue-collar footsteps, even though he spent most of his time as a child in his mother’s care while his dad was working. Though Lubrano’s book primarily focuses on the struggles of straddlers, many important observations about the blue-collar class can be drawn from the text.

Straddler or Not?

Knowing Travis’s family history, his own values and beliefs, and his political affiliation, the question that needs to be asked now is, “Is he a potential straddler or not?” Travis holds a special mixture of beliefs and values that don’t quite fit Lubrano’s rigid guidelines for determining a person’s class. Lubrano defines class lines by means of educational achievement. White-collar workers have college degrees, while blue-collar workers perform manual labor and lack education beyond high school. However, Lubrano (2004) admits, “Along with education, factors such as income, job status, and the amount of authority and control one has at work are generally described in the sociological literature as the major determinants of class” (p. 3). So where does Travis fit in this world of class categories?

Travis mentioned to me that earlier this week, while working at his construction job site, he spent thirty minutes convincing another carpenter that New Orleans is a city, not a state. He tells me this story with such disgust and discontent in his eyes, that I ask him what’s the matter. He replies, “I’m tired of working with dumbasses.” But Travis doesn’t have any college course work under his belt. He’s merely graduated from high school, just like all the other blue-collar workers on his job site. Travis tells me that his co-workers cuss and spit tobacco all day; that he yearns for something more, but doesn’t know what. A desk job is just “not his thing.” He would like to go to college, but can’t afford it. Travis says, “Besides, I don’t like to read, anyways.”

I ask Travis what his home life was like growing up. Unlike many blue-collar families, Travis’s parents weren’t strict. In fact, Travis says they were very lenient with him and his brother. Travis was taught to work hard, but wasn’t forced into work. He chose that route himself. At age 12, Travis picked up summer work at a blueberry farm a mile from his house. He rode his bike there everyday and picked blueberries for a dollar an hour. As soon as he turned sixteen, he found higher-paying work at the local tractor supply store, and worked there until he graduated high school. Travis tells me that he wanted to play football in high school, but that extra-curricular activities would conflict with his work schedule. Travis says, “My parents never pushed me to work, though. I did it because I wanted to.” I asked Travis if his parents ever expressed that school work was more important than his part-time job. Travis replied that his parents taught him to make school his top priority, and that he would have to quit his job if his grades dropped. However, Travis cannot recall his parents ever telling him that he should go to college. Travis remembers, “Mom and Dad never really said much about college, but I knew they’d support me in anything I decided to do.”

The Great American Backlash

According to Frank, Republicans have created what he terms, the “Great American Backlash.” This Backlash is “...a style of conservatism that....mobilizes voters with explosive social issues–summoning public outrage over everything from busing to un-Christian art–which it then marries to pro-business economic policies. Cultural anger is marshaled to achieve economic ends” (Frank, 2004, p. 5).

I explain the idea of the Great American Backlash, and Travis begins to see the deception that Frank speaks of. Travis realizes that he has been taking an active part in making the rich richer and the poor poorer by voting against his own best economic interests. Frank (2004) explains that the Backlash began when working-class Americans started supporting the traditional, wealthy Republicans in an attempt to “preserve family values” (p. 136). Mod Republicans (a.k.a. upper-class, traditional conservatives) saw their chance to shine by signing on with the Kansas Cons (a.k.a. the new breed of the right: ultra-religious, blue-collar Americans). Unfortunately, as Frank (2004) explains:

All they [Kansas Cons] have to show for their Republican loyalty are lower wages, more dangerous jobs, dirtier air, a new overlord class that comports itself like King Farouk–and, of course, a crap culture whose moral free fall continues without significant interference from the grand-standing Christers whom they send triumphantly back to Washington every couple of years. (p. 136)

Part of the reason why Kansas Cons have been successful in pushing blue-collar workers to the right of the political spectrum has to do with the observation that many working-class people have become single-issue voters, wrapped up in the preservation of family values, the right to conceal and carry, or the continuance of the death penalty. Travis and I review his political beliefs and we find that the majority of his values align with the liberal end of the spectrum. For example, Travis reveals that he is for the death penalty and the right to bear arms, both conservative values, but that he is also pro-union, pro-choice, for government control of social welfare programs, and against trickle-down economics, all of which are liberal beliefs. I ask Travis what issues are most important to him when choosing a political candidate. He quickly answers, “Gun control, of course. The right to bear arms needs to be protected.” Yet he also answers, “The economy and the war.”

Despite my explanation of the Great American Backlash and blue-collar values, Travis tells me, “I think most working-class people are Democrats. At least if they’re worried about their jobs they would be.” However, Travis admits that the most logical approach may not always be the one taken.

Conclusion

So why does Travis vote Republican? “Well, actually,” Travis admits, “I voted for Kerry this last time around.” Travis finally realized that his Republican ties were only dragging him down the ladder of economics. So why do other blue-collar workers tend to vote Republican? Travis says, “In my opinion, most blue-collar workers don’t follow politics too closely so they vote for single issues like gun control or abortion. As Frank (2004) put it, whether blue-collar or white:

One thing unites all these different groups of Kansans, these millionaires and trailer-park dwellers, these farmers and thrift-store managers and slaughterhouse workers and utility executives: they are almost all Republicans. (p. 67)

Travis realizes that he doesn’t quite “fit in” with the blue-collar crowd, but he definitely is not white-collar either. Possibly with age, Travis will grow into a straddler by taking college courses and working his way into a white-collar job. Ultimately, Lubrano’s definitions of blue-collar, white-collar, and straddler are too restricting. Either Travis is an exception, or Lubrano’s stereotypes simply do not hold true when applied to real-life dynamic individuals. Travis grew up with one straddler parent and one blue-collar parent, thus giving him a unique advantage, enabling him to understand the values of both cultures, regardless of their collars’ color.

References

Frank, T. (2004). What’s the matter with Kansas? How conservatives won the heart of America. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

“Travis.” Personal Interview, Feb. 9, 2005.