Mr. Moderate

Most people would think that the terms “Western” and “Eastern” had to do with the 20th century confrontation between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The origin of this distinction between what is “East” and what is “West” actually goes back 17 additional centuries to 285 CE when the Emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire into its Eastern and Western halves. After Diocletian, the Roman Empire was united and divided several times until the final division in 395 when the Emperor Theodosius I gave half to each of his two sons by his first wife. The western half went into a period of rapid decline, and was overrun by various surrounding tribes in various places and at various times. Some date the fall of the Western Roman Empire as early as 455 CE, when Rome was overrun by barbarian tribes, but the last widely-recognized Emperor of the West formally abdicated his rule on October 4, 476 CE.

The Eastern Roman Empire, which is usually called the Byzantine Empire, continued on for many centuries, however. Its founding is sometimes taken as May 11, 330, when the Emperor Constantine, who ruled over both East and West, formally consecrated his new capitol as Nova Roma (New Rome). However, after his death, the city became known as Constantine’s City, or Constantinople. To distinguish this long-lasting empire from the older Roman Empire, the eastern empire is frequently referred to as the Byzantine Empire, a name which is taken from the name of Constantinople prior to Constintine’s extreme makeover. Before then, the small town which stood at that site was called Byzantium, a trading post town established in the 7th century BCE.
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Anybody who is learning to be a political wonk these days had best read the Thomas Frank book: What’s the Matter with Kansas? This book provides a liberal education about why the right wing is so politically powerful these days and just what drives the people who have been sucked into their propaganda arena to continually vote against the interests of the common people and for the interests of the wealthiest Americans. From an economic standpoint, if you want to understand why the disparity in wealth between the upper regions of the American economy and the rest of us is so great, you start with this book. The more that Americans vote for Republicans, the more wealth is sucked out of the lower classes and into the pockets of the super-rich, and the State of Kansas is merely a microcosm for how the Republicans gained power through deliberate manipulation of public opinion using advertising which is pure propaganda.

You see, Kansas didn’t used to be the reddest of red states. As Frank points out, over a century ago, Kansas was a hotbed of socialism and populism, as was most of the Midwest. In those days, the small farmers had power, and it was the power of the voting booth which eventually led to the sacrosanct agriculture subsidies provided by our modern federal government. Ever since the “free soil” Republicans wrested control of Kansas from the pro-slavery Democrats before the Civil War, the identity of Kansas was closely tied to Republicanism in politics. But even into the middle of the 20th century, the Kansas politicians who made a splash in national politics were almost universally from the moderate or progressive wing of the Republican Party. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Senators Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum would have much more in common with the policies of progressive Republican President Theodore Roosevelt than with any part of the leaders of the modern Republican Party. The turning point for Republicans was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed that law, he knew he was signing away political control of the south for at least the next several decades. And as people re-thought their political affiliations in the wake of that single act, the face of American politics was being changed for decades to come.
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