One of the world’s most prominent international publications has published a look into the peculiar politics of southwest Kansas.
The English newspaper The Economist this week releaseda special report on Kansas, which it calls “the birthplace of populism.” In particular, the paper delved into the unique local political flavor of Liberal, Kansas. Despite its name, the town went for Donald Trump in a big way last November.
As The Economist asserts, Trump’s popularity in Liberal lies in southwest Kansas’s traditional suspicion of immigrants, an attitude the President has capitalized on. But despite this nativist populism, Liberal is changing. And Republicans there argue that the melting pot is working well for them.
However, that hasn’t stopped the town from voting based on the belief that their tax dollars are going to people they deem somehow unamerican.