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John Weissenberger: Blissfully caffeinated in Middle America

As we blow south this summer, like so much Ontario woodsmoke, primo jitter juice will be awaiting in the caffeination nation

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Something’s brewing in Middle America. What exactly is bubbling up in that vast, sprawling land — from the hazy heights of Appalachia, across the Ohio and Mississippi to endless waves of grain, up to the purple western ramparts? Shockingly, amidst the corn mazes, church steeples, Walmart supercentres and high school stadiums the size of Rogers Centre, lies hidden a stunning social upheaval. Fantastic coffee.

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For the bicoastal elites this is an endless terra incognita that, thanks to modern air travel, can be conveniently flown over. Its cultural insignificance is reflected in the electoral map — a sea of red (Republican) counties sprinkled with a few blue (Democrat) dots, the state capitals and college towns. Leftists, like historian Thomas Frank, if they think of the region at all, are baffled. In his 2004 book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, Frank argued that Middle America was gripped by Marxist false consciousness. Kansans didn’t realize that abandoning their left-populist roots was a mistake and, despite all the evidence, liberal elites didn’t actually despise them. Well not much anyway. Little did Frank know that mid-westerners wanted to raise their consciousness, but it was through caffeine. So, what Democrats needed to do was sell their politics with a free........

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