A Reborn-Again Kansan

My Diverse, Bloody, Odd, and Treasured Sunflower State

We hear so much about presidential candidates–and so little about life in the states that elect them. In “Beyond the Circus,” writers take us off the trail and give us glimpses of politically important places. Today, Kansas.

To most Americans, Kansas is a state experienced in transit: flown over or traversed without stopping. But it’s also a fabled place of internal struggle, where John Brown helped start the Civil War, and where warring ideologies continue today (we haven’t elected a Republican or Democrat governor twice in a row since 1965). In …