In 2000 and 2004 no Southern state voted for Al Gore or John Kerry

In 2000 and 2004, no Southern state voted for Al Gore or John Kerry. Today, of the 22 US senators from the states of the old Confederacy, only two are Democrats.The Republicans now have their own proven winner – a coalition that embraces pro-business “Rockefeller Republicans” from the traditional East Coast establishment, the new Republican South, and cultural conservatives of the ilk now so common in Kansas.Once the state was the preserve of moderate Republicans – Eisenhower, then Bob Dole ( in his later years at least) and its beloved Nancy Landon Kassebaum, daughter of Alf Landon (whom Roosevelt defeated for the presidency in 1936) and a three-term senator until she retired in 1997. Some predict that it could set a pattern for Republicans at a national level.Both established parties have built their historic eras of dominance in the 20th century – Republican at its start, then Democrat, and Republican again at the end – on coalitions. The culture warriors may have little concrete to show for their labours. But their offensive has split the state Republican party in two, so that the state in practice has a three-party system: Democrats, Republican moderates and Republican conservatives. The store is still there.Kansas politics, however, has been less impervious to change. Wade Supreme Court ruling that enshrines a woman’s right to an abortion.

Back in Abilene, a local district attorney based his 2004 election campaign on a promise to get rid of a highly visible adult entertainment store on the interstate just outside town He won the election. Decades of vigorous campaigning by the pro-life lobby have failed to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Cultural conservatives have made electoral advances in Kansas and across the country, but despite every effort of the Kansas board of education, Darwin still rules. “Democrats just support programmes to keep themselves in power,” she told me What about the evolution row, I asked. “I feel we shouldn’t teach about Darwin unless we teach about intelligent design,” she replied, adding that she herself was a creationist.

“This country was founded according to God’s law, and we did so well. Now we’re going the other way, and look what’s happening.”So the fight will go on, even though the political victories change nothing. I was reading What’s the Matter with Kansas? over a decent ribeye steak when my waitress saw the title and asked what it was about.”Oh,” I replied, “It says that ordinary people in Kansas have been duped into voting against their economic interests when they back Republican candidates.” But the waitress, a mother of three called Linda McGinty, was having none of it. I was having dinner in the Topeka Steak House, a rough and ready place a few miles east of town, where customers roll up in their pick-up trucks and SUVs and most are on their way home by 8 pm.