The Tilting Yard - WSJ.com

Thomas Frank, author of the best-selling "What's the Matter with Kansas" is making the rounds promoting his new book "Wrecking Crew: How conservatives rule". He is also a columnist for the Murdoch business vehicle, the Wall Street Journal. Here he comments on a recent Wichita tour date in his native state, Kansas. [excerpt] Rarer still is it to find a Republican lawmaker with Mr. Swenson's beliefs. He dislikes our current president, he tells me, for building the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay, for the Iraq war, and for "wanting to obliterate Social Security." John McCain, for his part, "has values that are being driven by corporate America." Bill and Hillary Clinton fare little better: "I don't think I'll ever forgive the Clintons for what they did as far as free trade goes." ... Even on the abortion question, where Mr. Swenson's views are more conventionally conservative, he takes a social-democratic tack, claiming that nations with universal health care and paid family leave have lower abortion rates. When I remark on how strange all this sounds coming from an elected GOP official, he reminds me that the authors of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures a "prevailing wage" for workers on federal projects, were both Republicans. Frank is off on qualifying state Representative Swenson as a political rarity, it would be more accurate to qualify Mr. Swenson as an intelligent Republican who remembers the radical history of the republican movement, Free State, anti-slavery and to the revolutionaries of the Enlightenment the ancient head choppers of France. Maybe Mr. Frank needs to spend more time reading the Flyer to not be so surprised at the political winds changing back home. The complete essay is at: The Tilting Yard - WSJ.com