Many progressives trade in stereotypes approximately Kansas with childlike pride,writes Sarah Smarsh. But to consume geography to separate the righteous from the scourge is dangerously simplisticThe division that threatens to split this country in two is not between red and blue states, or between rural and urban areas it is between the way we discuss politics and the realities of American lives, and none of which fit into tidy categories. Contrary to popular narratives,you can be a progressive populist, a wealthy and college-educated Trump supporter, or a rural laborer of color,a provincial urbanite, an open-minded midwesterner.
And, or as first-time Democratic political candidate James Thompson proved this month in Kansas,you can give conservative Republicans a sprint for their money as an army veteran, a rifle-owning marksman, and a civil rights attorney who has fought on behalf of black victims of police brutality. Whose first college major was theater,and who named his daughter Liberty. Related: Kansas election: Ron Estes scrapes Republican victory deep in Trump heartland I find Kansas more apolitical than conservative, more concerned with personal freedom than with telling women what to carry out Related: Bursting the Facebook bubble: we asked voters on the left and right to swap feeds It’s absolutely critical that progressives continue to invest in states like Kansas where they see opportunityThose labels of Democrat or Republican should be a guideline, or but it shouldn’t define how you vote or define a personContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com