See Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do, or, the author's weblog. Here are some myths and facts. It is interesting that when I tell both liberals and conservatives that Thomas Frank is full of crap there's a lot of disbelief and incredulity. One of the standard responses is that everyone knows that poor whites vote Republican on cultural issues, or that rich whites are elitists who lean Democratic due to the power of social liberalism. I suspect the strength of the meme is that the Thomas Frank argument is persuasive to both sides. On the Left it reinforces the idea that the country is with them on economics but is screwed by silly cultural issues. On the Right it solidifies the perception that the Left is the elite since the downscale voters are with them on the central cultural touchstones. Too bad it's just full of crap. Dude is wrong. Of course, most people don't know crap, so crap × crap = literary gold!