Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' title='Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' />From Ronald Reagan to Bernie Sanders  September 1. On Reality Asserts Itself, Thomas Frank, author of Whats the Matter with Kansas and Listen, Liberal, talks about his journey from being an enthusiastic supporter of the Vietnam War and Ronald Reagan to embracing Franklin Roosevelt and socialist Bernie Sanders transcript. PAUL JAYWelcome back to Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network, Im Paul Jay and were back with Tom Frank. Thanks for joining us again. So, Tom is the author of Whats the Matter with Kansas, Listen Liberal and if you want a longer biography, go watch the rest of the segments, and you really should anyway, because it will help you get this one. So, were picking up where we left off, which is youre in college, youre still a Republican. THOMAS FRANKWell, I gradually I transitioned I would say, as I was in college, away from being a Republican. I mentioned some of the things that opened my eyes, but by the time I left college, I was no longer a Republican. PAUL JAYBut were you still, as you said in the earlier segment, an enthusiastic patriot Would you still say the pledge with the enthusiasm THOMAS FRANKWe werent saying that by then anymore in college. How would I put thisYour complete guide to watching as many regional and national MLB games live online in 2017, even if you dont have a cable subscription. Watch The Driver Putlocker#. THE BASICS ABOUT TORNADOES. What is a tornado According to the Glossary of Meteorology AMS 2000, a tornado is a violently rotating column of air. The-Americans-S05E04.jpg' alt='Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' title='Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' />Google Fiber offers super fast Internet up to 1,000 megabits per second. Sign up for high speed Internet, TV, phone today. Dance Moms Cheryl Burke On Claims That Abby Lee Miller Is Talking Trash About Her In Prison Tom Petty Honored By Jason Aldean Keith Urban At 2017 CMT Artists Of. Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' title='Watch What`S The Matter With Kansas? Online' />September 15, 2017 From Ronald Reagan to Bernie Sanders RAI with Thomas Frank 56 On Reality Asserts Itself, Thomas Frank, author of Whats the Matter with. Ive always been patriotic. I dont think that my views about the economy or socialism, or whatever you want to say, you mentioned Bernie Sanders. I dont think that conflicts with patriotism in the least. PAUL JAYI guess that depends on how you define patriotism. THOMAS FRANKYeah. Im still a very patriotic person. PAUL JAYBut then theres a big division over the patriotism of your early days, which are framed. THOMAS FRANKIve never been hawkish or a militaristic. War is a dreadful, terrible, awful thing. Its not something to be entered into lightly. That is, and the kind of, the way people use patriotism to. PAUL JAYBut being a socialist, certainly during Cold War days was unpatriotic. THOMAS FRANKYeah, a patriot in the sense that I love my country. I feel very profoundly about that, obviously. If I didnt love my country, I wouldnt be doing all the stuff Im doing. Thats first and foremost. PAUL JAYBut theres loving the country from the point of view of loving the people of the country, and theres loving. THOMAS FRANKAnd the history and everything else about it. But patriotism is often, I think what youre getting at is the way its used to support the sort of military industrial. PAUL JAYMilitarism, patriotism. THOMAS FRANKThats awful. Thats a horrible perversion of patriotism. PAUL JAYDuring the Cold War, God gets added to the pledge. The idea of even having a loyalty oath is mostly a Cold War phenomenon. Watch Diva Online Diva Full Movie Online more. The idea you must support your government, right or wrong, you must support this Cold War. You have to hate the commies and the socialists, I mean, thats one type of patriotism. Theres another which to my mind is mostly about love for the people of the country, not the. THOMAS FRANKYeah. Of course. Absolutely. But that would, you know, the sort of militaristic, thats always been, in my mind, thats always been an obvious, what would you call it Its a scam. Its a fraud. Always. Thats apparent. PAUL JAYOkay, so youre kind of evolving out of Republican Party right or wrong, as you leave college. THOMAS FRANKI was always a very conscientious person. I should mention to you here, and this is something that Ive noticed as Ive grown older, that there are a number of people on the left wing who started out as conservatives and who believed in the promise of America, the sort of Norman Rockwell, superficial, Frank Capra promise of this country, and then realized when they became adults, that it just wasnt true, and that there was a lot that had to be done. The person I would specifically refer to you here is Elizabeth Warren who had a very similar background to mine grew up in Oklahoma, and was very conservative and learned at some point that this system that we have simply doesnt deliver what it says it delivers. It doesnt even come close. In fact, there is all sorts of fraud and monopoly and misbehavior that goes on. We all hate elites and yet elites are firmly in the saddle. Elites are more powerful today than they have ever been in our lifetimes. PAUL JAYWhen does that become acceptable thinking to you THOMAS FRANKWhen did my eyes. While I was in college I started figuring, I started understanding that. PAUL JAYBecause where you would have come from, they would have accused you of wanting to promote class war, which is the term they use when you start to talk like this. THOMAS FRANKIts an interesting thing about that term, which is, class conflict is something youre going to have whether you want to have it or dont want to have it. It is a sociological, this is in the structure of society. Theres nothing you can do about it. There are going to be classes. It is to some degree natural. To some degree, class war, class animosity is a sad thing, of course, but its also, its there all the time. The way I look at it, its kind of like this, its this sentiment thats out there in society, in the public and the trick is to appeal to it without saying youre appealing to it. This is the sort of, this is the theme of Whats the Matter with Kansas. Republicans have, and by the way Trump has perfected this Republicans figured out, beginning in the 1. Now youve got to remember, going back to the 3. Great Depression, and even before that, Republicans are always on the receiving end of class animosity. Theyre the rich, the moneybags, the fat cats, the Wall Street guys who the Democrats, you got your plain spoken guys like Harry Truman, who didnt even go to college, who are always making fun of them. The horny handed sons of toil are laughing at the rich guys. This, for people one generation above me or two generations above me, thats always the way American politics unfolded. Well, in the 1. 97. Republicans figured out a way to flip that entire thing on its head with this idea of the liberal elite, talking about the media, talking about college professors, all of the thing. PAUL JAYPart, because its true. It works, because its true. THOMAS FRANKIn part, because its true. PAUL JAYThere is a liberal elite. THOMAS FRANKIts also a massive exaggeration. But, yes it is true, as I have pointed out in Listen Liberal. There is a, its not just a grain of truth to this. This has become more true as weve gone along. Videos Access Hollywood.