What Kansas (And Places Like It) Actually Need

Why We’ve Been Asking the Wrong Question for Twenty Years

In 2004, Thomas Frank asked, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” His answer: working-class Americans were voting Republican based on cultural issues while the Republican economic policies they supported actively hurt them. Guns, abortion, and religion were the misdirection in a magic trick—the distraction while the real trick happened elsewhere.

Twenty years later, we’re still asking Frank’s question. We’re still analyzing why these voters choose culture war over economic self-interest. We’re still puzzled by the paradox.

But that’s the wrong question. We know the answer.

The right question isn’t “What’s the matter with Kansas?” It’s “What does Kansas actually need and how can we implement policies to solve intractable problems that affect people’s lives across the country?” What follows isn’t a Democratic or Republican agenda. It’s a results agenda. We’re well beyond the time for analysis and hand-wringing about voting patterns. We need to propose and implement policies that improve lives.

Why? Because people are struggling, suffering, and dying as a direct result of failed policies and misdirected attention.

I. THE MISDIRECTION

Let me show you how the trick works.

While voters in West Virginia, Appalachia, and rural America were focused on cultural distractions like whether football players stand for the anthem, whether transgender athletes should compete in high school sports, and whether cities are teaching “critical race theory,” this was happening to their communities:

In West Virginia:

• Life expectancy fell to 72.8 years in 2021—49th in the nation, nearly 5 years below the national average

• The poverty rate is consistently among the nation’s three highest

• The population collapsed: 88,000+ residents lost since 2012, a 5% decline

• Overdose deaths ran 64% higher than the national average

• Median household income is roughly $55,000—consistently 49th or 50th in the nation, compared to the national median of approximately $75,000

And it didn’t happen by accident. While politicians were stoking rage about cultural issues, they were enacting policies that accelerated the economic devastation:

• Opposing Medicaid expansion and voting to repeal the ACA

• Cutting opioid treatment funding while deaths soared

• Slashing infrastructure investment, particularly in broadband

• Eliminating vocational training programs ($1.65 billion cut)

• Supporting tax cuts that added $3.4 trillion to the deficit without creating jobs in these communities

The misdirection worked perfectly. Keep them focused on the culture war while dismantling the programs that might actually help them. Keep them angry at immigrants, liberals, and “coastal elites” while you cut the safety net beneath their feet.

For over half a century, West Virginians had champions. Robert C. Byrd served 51 years (1959–2010). Jay Rockefeller served 30 years (1985–2015). Together, they gave West Virginia 56 years of combined seniority and power, steering billions in federal investment to the state.

From 1932 to 1996—64 consecutive years—West Virginia voted Democratic in every presidential election, supporting the federal programs that built the safety net when coal jobs disappeared. Then, starting in 2000, everything changed. In 2024, Donald Trump won West Virginia with 69.97% of the vote—the highest percentage any party has ever received in the state’s history.

West Virginia replaced champions who fought for investment with politicians who cut the programs the state needed.

The result:

Life expectancy fell to 72.8 years. The 12-year gap between McDowell County (66.4 years) and Monongalia County (78.6 years) is larger than the life expectancy difference between the United States and Bangladesh. Poverty rates remain among the nation’s highest.

This is what voting against your self-interest looks like. Not in theory. This isn’t hyperbole. It’s epidemiology. In body counts.

II. FOUR CRISES CONVERGE

The income gap, the education/skills gap, the healthcare crisis, and the opioid epidemic have hit Appalachia and West Virginia particularly hard. These aren’t four separate problems. They are connected in a vicious cycle that feeds on itself.

The Income Gap: When median family income is 15% to 18% below the national average, people are trapped in poverty.

The Education/Skills Gap: When only 26% of adults have college degrees, the region is starved for white-collar talent, but the equal and opposite problem is the lack of certified, highly-skilled tradespeople who command high wages and build local wealth. The emphasis on college has neglected the high-wage, debt-free path of the skilled trades.

The Healthcare Crisis: Rural residents are older and sicker but have less access to care as local hospitals close.

The Opioid Epidemic: Economic despair leads to self-medication, which destroys the workforce and deepens economic despair.

While they were voting for politicians who promised to fight the culture war, those same politicians were cutting the very programs—job training, infrastructure, healthcare—that might break this cycle.

III. SO LET ME ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION

What do Kansas, Appalachia, and rural America really need?

First, let’s be honest about what they don’t need: false promises. The coal mines are closed and not coming back. Promising to reopen the mines is powerful rhetoric but disconnected from economic reality.

What they actually need are policies that work. They need investment with measurable returns. Most importantly, they need multiple, respected pathways to high-wage, middle-class careers that do not require a bachelor’s degree.

Here’s what two decades of analysis without action has cost us: tens of thousands of preventable deaths from despair, hundreds of billions in lost economic productivity, and the exodus of an entire generation from communities that could have thrived. We know what doesn’t work. We’ve seen the data. We’ve read the reports. Now let’s talk about what does.

We have proven models. We just need the political courage to reallocate existing spending toward policies that deliver results.

IV. FIVE SOLUTIONS

Solution 1: Rural Broadband—3-4x Return on Investment

Universal connectivity as economic infrastructure

The Problem: Depending on the measurement standard, 24 million to 42 million Americans lack broadband access, cutting them off from telemedicine, remote work, and online business.

The Solution: We spend over $20 billion annually on farm subsidies. The top 10% of farms receive 75% of these subsidies, effectively subsidizing corporate megafarms. Let’s redirect $10 billion from corporate farm subsidies to support creation and expansion of rural broadband infrastructure. We should create a TVA-style project for rural broadband that brings Internet access to regions cut off from the opportunities connected to the Internet. This investment is revenue positive within five years through higher incomes and the taxes they generate, with a demonstrated 3–4 times return on investment (every $1 billion generates approximately $3.5 billion in economic activity and $400 million in additional tax revenue over a decade).

Solution 2: Place-Based Hiring Incentives

Targeted job creation where it’s needed most

The Problem: We spend well over $150 billion annually on corporate tax expenditures that primarily benefit wealthy metro areas.

The Solution: Redirect $10 billion to targeted geographically based hiring incentives. Designate “Economically Distressed Counties”—the bottom 20% by median income. Provide a $15,000 per year tax credit to businesses for three years for each employee hired in these counties, but only for jobs paying 120% or more of the county median wage. This policy trades inefficient subsidies for targeted ones that create high-wage jobs where they’re needed most, making it revenue neutral—just better allocated.

Solution 3: Domestic Development Finance Corporation (DDFC)

Self-financing infrastructure investment

The Problem: Infrastructure projects are often chosen for political reasons, not economic return, leading to money flows toward “bridges to nowhere” instead of growth-generating investments.

The Solution: Create a Domestic Development Finance Corporation modeled on the self-sustaining, profitable models of the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

The DDFC would be a $50 billion (one-time) self-financing loan program, not a handout. It provides direct loans and guarantees for projects that demonstrate “reasonable assurance of repayment,” such as manufacturing facilities in distressed counties, renewable energy, and essential infrastructure. If we can finance development in Africa, we can finance development in Appalachia, on Native American reservations, and in other regions that have been left behind.

Solution 4: The New Apprenticeship Pipeline

The primary debt-free path to the middle class

The Problem: The “college-for-all” push has devalued the trades, while federal vocational funding of approximately $1.65 billion (e.g., Perkins CTE Act) often results in poor completion rates and programs disconnected from actual employer needs, leading to dead-end certifications and student debt.

The Solution: Redirect that $1.65 billion to tax credits for employer-run apprenticeships. Provide $5,000 per year for 2–3 year paid apprenticeship programs that must result in full-time employment. This creates funding for approximately 330,000 apprenticeships annually.

This is the debt-free path to the potential of a six-figure career. It focuses on high-demand trades (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, welding, machining) and transfers training from a theoretical classroom back to the market-driven job site. Because the worker is already an employee, completion is guaranteed, and the employer is invested. This is a revenue-positive investment over time as highly paid tradespeople pay more in taxes throughout their careers.

Solution 5: National Teacher Corps

The high-need public service model

The Problem: Over 400,000 teaching positions nationwide are either unfilled or filled by uncertified teachers—1 in 8 positions. Rural schools are hit hardest (59% reported serious difficulty filling positions) because they cannot compete with urban salaries and lack pipelines.

The Solution: Create a National Teacher Corps modeled on ROTC to serve this single, high-need public sector role. Why are we willing to invest in 4-year scholarships to create ensigns and second lieutenants but not willing to invest in a comparable program to create teachers?

How It Works: Provide a full four-year scholarship and stipend in exchange for a five-year service commitment in high-need areas like rural counties and Native American reservations. This is not for the general workforce—that’s Solution 4—but is essential to ensuring foundational education for the next generation. This program provides highly-trained, fully certified teachers who are invested in their community and costs approximately $6.5 billion annually, funded by consolidating existing education subsidies.

V. THE FISCAL FRAMEWORK

Every dollar in the proposals outlined above is either revenue neutral, self-financing, or revenue positive within five years. This is actual fiscal conservatism: reallocating the $28.15 billion already being spent badly toward high-return investments.

The standard: Every dollar must demonstrate a measurable return on investment: jobs created, wages increased, tax receipts generated, and dependency reduced.

The accountability mechanism: Each program must have powerful internal audit and annual reporting requirements that measure actual returns against budgeted objectives. Program management must be required to adjust strategies, reallocate resources, or terminate initiatives that fail to deliver measurable results. No more zombie programs that persist because they existed last year. No more funding inertia. If a program doesn’t work, we fix it or kill it. This isn’t just good governance—it’s the minimum requirement for asking taxpayers to trust government with their money. The annual reports must be public, data-driven, and specific: How many jobs created? At what wage levels? What tax revenue generated? What dependency reduced? Programs that can’t answer these questions don’t deserve continued funding.

Total reallocation:

• Rural Broadband: $10B (redirected from corporate farm subsidies)

• Place-Based Hiring: $10B (redirected from inefficient corporate tax expenditures)

• DDFC: $50B one-time (self-financing loan program)

• Apprenticeships: $1.65B (redirected from failed vocational programs)

• Teacher Corps: $6.5B (consolidated from existing education subsidies)

This isn’t new spending. It’s smarter spending.

VI. WHY HAVEN’T WE DONE THIS ALREADY?

The honest answer: entrenched interests, lobbying power, and political inertia.

Corporate megafarms lobby to protect subsidies. Tax expenditures benefit powerful metro-area corporations with legal and accounting teams. Failed education programs have built-in constituencies. Every dollar reallocated threatens someone’s rice bowl.

But the political moment has shifted. Both parties claim to champion the working class. Both claim to care about rural America. Both say they want results over rhetoric.

The question is whether either will choose to act.

VII. THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THESE INITIATIVES

For Republicans: This is actual fiscal conservatism—using proven, market-disciplined models like apprenticeships and loan programs (EXIM/DFC). It shifts the focus from corporate welfare to local wealth creation through building a skilled workforce for the next generation. It eliminates government waste and redirects spending toward programs with measurable ROI.

For Democrats: This is how you actually help working families—creating multiple, debt-free, high-wage pathways out of poverty and investing in the core infrastructure (broadband, trade skills, education) that communities left behind desperately need. It addresses inequality not through redistribution but through opportunity creation.

The question is: Will either party have the courage to reallocate existing spending away from entrenched interests—corporate farms, inefficient tax breaks, failed programs—toward policies that actually work?

VIII. THE CHOICE

We already spend hundreds of billions on rural America. The question is whether we’re getting results.

Right now, we’re funding fiscal malpractice: corporate welfare, political infrastructure projects, and failed training programs. Meanwhile, life expectancy falls, people die, and young people leave.

These solutions are aligned with a bold promise of security and opportunity. They are market-driven solutions that address the intractable problems facing regions of the country, urban and rural, that have been left behind by generations of failed social policies and programs.

What we are missing is the political courage to choose policy over politics, results over rhetoric, and governance over grievance.

The question is whether we’ll choose to act before another generation is lost.