When I googled What’s the Matter With Kansas, the first thing I noticed in the Wikipedia entry was the authors complaint that Kansas was no longer the “hotbed” of populism it once was.
In the late 19th century, Kansas was known as a hotbed of the left-wing Populist movement, but in recent decades, it has become overwhelmingly conservative.
I would suggest there is good a reason, the good people of Kansas rejected the left wing ideology the author laments.
In the 20th century the extermination of tens of millions of people by the USSR was revealed to people who were paying attention. As a result any political philosophy, in any way aligned with Communists (which the populists of the day were) was out of favor.
"How long will you keep killing people?" asked Lady Astor of Stalin in 1931.
Replied Stalin, "the process would continue as long as was necessary" to establish a communist society.
Probably 61,911,000 people, 54,769,000 of them citizens, have been murdered by the Communist Party--the government--of the Soviet Union
* 1923-29: 2,200,000
* 1929-39: 15,785,000
* 1939-45: 18,157,000
* 1946-54: 15,613,000
The New York Times did its best to hide this from the American people.
Walter Duranty (1884-1957) was a correspondent for the New York Times who violated the public trust by sending pro-Soviet stories home, pretending that all was well even as Russia starved 6 million Ukrainians to death. Bewilderingly, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for telling these lies.
Duranty is known for being a Stalinist sympathizer, Soviet propagandist, and blatant liar. Duranty's reports stated that the Soviets were ruling in the best interest of the people. He referred to Stalin as "the greatest living statesman". Stalin himself told Duranty "You have done a good job in your reporting of the USSR"[2] Even though Duranty was criticized initially, it was not until 1980 that the Times publicly acknowledged his failure.
This is the type of thing that makes me wonder if anyone should trust the Times as it goes out of its way to disparage anyone associated with the Tea Party.
