Moyers on the class war

The transcript to Moyers' interview with Thomas Frank, the guy who wrote about framing the class war as a culture war, is out.

THOMAS FRANK: Yeah, that's right. This is the fascinating thing about the way class is discussed in America now. And it's not just in Kansas but everywhere in the country, is that it's not about economics. It's about cultural issues. Class is about culture. It's not about economics, it's not about-- well, I mean it is obviously about who you know, where you work, what kind of money you make. But the way that it affects you, the grievances that you have are cultural ones.

MOYERS: Such as?

FRANK: Abortion is the main one. This is something-- it's divided along class lines in Kansas where the moderate Republicans who tend to be affluent, the people that I grew up around, tend to be pro-choice. The working class Republicans are pro-life.

Continues.Frank has written the book What's the Matter with Kansas? How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America.

Despite all that's been written, I still don't quite understand how this whole movement came about. How could people vote against their economic self-interest? Deliberately misleading people so that they would betray themselves seems to be an amazingly depraved thing to do.