![]() ![]() In The Topeka School, the city’s political and cultural contradictions surround Adam Gordon in every area of his life-school, family, friends. ![]() Send me updates about Slate special offers. But as the ’90s wore on, those checks weakened, and the gap between Topeka’s political differences grew uncomfortably wide. (Of course, as white folks, we were never threatened by racial violence.) Extreme government policy, meanwhile, was checked by a politically moderate governor (Bill Graves) and senator (Bob Dole). We also didn’t worry too often about the spread of political extremes, because with the exception of the Westboro Baptist Church-a group that even my most conservative family members thought consisted of loons-expressions of extreme beliefs were kept mostly in check by Midwestern politeness. My friends’ families were likewise gripped by contradiction: I’ll never forget my best friend’s father ranting about “entitlements” as he walked out the door on his way to pick up an unemployment check.įor years, the cognitive dissonances didn’t bother us much, because everyone around us held them. But it was also supposed to regulate women’s reproductive rights. ![]() The federal government was supposed to stay out of our lives. At home, dinner conversations would jump from carping about government overreach to lamenting over a neighbor’s loss of Medicaid coverage. ![]()
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