In What’s The Matter With Kansas? , Thomas Frank found the ghost of Friedrich Engels haunting the Great Plains. The author of the 2004 bestseller argued that by voting Republican, and therefore against redistribution, poor Kansans had a case of false consciousness. Democrats were soothed by the idea put forward by Frank that, for the working class, re-electing President George W Bush was a form of masochism, and that their party simply had to make these people realise that voting for them was in their own interest.
Today, Frank’s question could be rephrased “What’s The Matter With Clacton?” or “Quel est le problème avec Fréjus?”, to pick two European areas where populist parties have flourished. The UK Independence party and, in France, the National Front, are also seen as duping the white working class with their populist appeal.
Some political psychologists believe the workings of the mind, rather than political false consciousness, best explain this. In The Political Brain , Drew Westen argued Republicans are better than Democrats at appealing to emotion, which is more important than reason in swaying voters. Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind suggested lefties and conservatives evolve fundamentally different moral instincts and values.