Marathon Pundit: 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.