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.
在《堪萨斯怎么了？》(What’s The Matter With Kansas? )一书中，托马斯•弗兰克(Thomas Frank)发现了弗里德里希•恩格斯(Friedrich Engels)的幽灵在美国大平原(Great Plains)上游荡。弗兰克在这本于2004年出版的畅销书中辩称，通过投票支持共和党人，从而反对再分配，可怜的堪萨斯人犯了思想上的错误。民主党人对弗兰克的以下观点感到欣慰：对工人阶级来说，让小布什(George W Bush)连任总统是某种形式的受虐狂，而民主党只要让这些人认识到，投票支持民主党符合他们自身的利益。