Marathon Pundit: What's the Matter with California?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

What's the Matter with California?

Author and radio host Jack Cashill is asking that question. And FrontPage Magazine asked him about his new book, What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking

Says Cashill:

A few years back, Thomas Frank wrote a bestseller called What's the Matter with Kansas?, a soft-core Marxist hit on red state America. I felt both slimed and honoured -- and more than a little surprised -- to be profiled in the book, especially given that I was born and raised in New Jersey and live and work in Missouri.

The Frank book inspired a whole swarm of smarmy know-it-all writers and filmmakers from either coast to interview me and my Kansas buddies.

I decided to return the favor and turn a provincial eye on the progressive guy. I chose his natural habitat -- that coal miner’s canary of progressive Americana, California, which is much more fun to visit than Kansas. For the record, I have a Ph.D. in American studies.