States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America

Journalist Kleinknecht (The Man Who Sold the World) delivers a scathing rebuke of Republican politicians who have created financial opportunities for companies at the expense of the health and safety of their constituents. Contending that conservative governors and state legislators, in conjunction with their “corporate allies,” have made working-class people in red states “poorer, sicker, less educated” than their counterparts in blue states, Kleinknecht writes that “only by fully understanding the trend toward autocracy and corporate dominion in the red states” will progressives be able to “wrest control of the narrative from the far right and begin to alter the course of American politics.” His evidence includes the gutting of environmental enforcement efforts in Texas and the 2014 Elk River chemical spill in West Virginia, “one of the worst cases of contaminated drinking water in American history.” Meanwhile, Kleinknecht claims, “evacuation orders, poisoned drinking water, red tides, beaches with no-swimming signs, bays with fishing bans, [and]cancer hotspots... have either disappeared or become rarities in the blue states.” Kleinknecht also tackles disparities in education and healthcare funding and highlights innovative welfare programs such as Connecticut’s “Baby Bonds” initiative. Copious evidence, impassioned prose, and astute political analysis make this a must-read for progressive policymakers and activists. (Nov.)