Farmers are pissed off with Trump.

[kentuck]

Traditionally, farmers have been loyal Republicans. Donald Trump is making that tradition very difficult to continue.

Farmers understand that these trade wars are going to hurt for a long time. They are not "easy" to win, as Donald Trump has said.

Because once the tariffs are lifted, the markets do not return to where they were before. There are new exporters and new supply chains. It takes time to build those up.

Although many of the farmers supported Trump and believe he is right in standing up to the Chinese, it does not lessen their pain. The corporate welfare (taxpayers dollars) that is given the farmers as a subsidy does not make up for their losses.

Their votes are not money in the bank for Donald Trump, in my opinion. Democrats should re-assure them that their markets and their livelihoods will be protected under a Democratic president.

[calimary]

1. Hopefully they'll go beyond just being pissed off.

And vote a LOT smarter next time (like NOT for trump).

Anyone who still supports this monster after everything we’ve seen and heard and read - for such folks, I’m afraid I have dwindling supplies of sympathy and understanding.




Reminds me of the old joke - I went to the doctor and showed him my problem and said “it hurts when I do that” and the doctor said “well, don’t do that.”

[Aristus]

2. If the only thing that happens is that next time around,

is that they'll hold their noses as they vote for Trump again, then their anger isn't worth very much.

I don't care if they're pissed off. Let's see them do something about it. Let's see them publicly support another candidate. Let's see them donate to organizations dedicated to voting Trump out. Let's see them vote down-ballot for candidates who aren't Republicans, who will just continue to vote for right-wing judges and the status quo.

Anger is fine, but it don't mean a thing if it doesn't get you to pull the lever for the other guy.

[matt819]

3. Not sure I agree completely

Maybe. Maybe not.

But I just can't see white, mostly conservative, mostly Christian farmers voting for Biden, Sanders, or Warren (for example). One article recently noted that one farmer has written in Romney in 2016. So, converting their upset to votes for the Dem candidate is gong to be a long haul.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Maybe they'll stay home.

Not voting for Trump is better than nothing.

[smirkymonkey]

4. It's possible that they have lost that market for good and I am wondering how many

of them realize it. Even if Trump lifts the tariffs, things are not going to turn around for them. At least not for a long time and not without a lot of pain.

It will remain to be seen if they are stupid enough to cast their vote for him again. If so, they deserve everything that comes their way.

[gratuitous]

6. Angry, perhaps; but angry enough?

We need our Democratic stalwarts to go to farm country and make sure that their anger is focused in the right direction. Have some (not just one) political rallies featuring Democrats running for office in 2020. Appeal directly to the people living there, without the Fox News filter. Talk to the local newspapers, radio stations, and television news teams and explain why the Democrats' platform is superior to the Republicans. Go back every few weeks with another Democratic heavy hitter, and let the people there know that we're aware of their situation and we have a plan for them. Local operatives will also get a good feeling that the national party hasn't forgotten them and their lonely work in the wilderness.

Make Trump's numbers drop a few points, and watch the panicked reaction from Republicans who suspect they've hitched their wagon to the Titanic instead of a star.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. As someone who watch and listened

as Farmers from Minnesota,Iowa and the Dakotas went to China on their own dime in order to sell their Products. This past two years plus has been brutal for these folks,who by the way are mostly gone from the Farms and living in the extended Care Facility in the nearest town,as they see all their had work pissed down the drain.

And yes,they all for the most part bought the GOP bullshit about the City folks just don't like them and there for you need to vote for us cause we care. Oh how we remember the Postal Patron Box Holders that were sent out the weekend before Election Day calling the Local Dems every friggin name under the sun. And this time if they stay with the Rethugs they will have to share the same consequences with the Rethugs. Don't think a Farm Bailout will have the same support as the Eighties. To many bridges burned.

[CatWoman]

8. National Farmers Union Head Scorches Trump: He's Offended 'Pretty Much Every Ally' On Earth

The president of the National Farmers Union has leveled an astonishingly frank broadside against President Donald Trump, who rural voters largely supported in the 2016 election.

Trade group leader Roger Johnson said in a radio interview Thursday that it will take “decades” to reverse damage caused by Trump. China, he added, is now a “lost market” for American farmers because of Trump’s trade war.

Trump has “offended the leaders of pretty much every ally we have on Earth,” and America’s reputation in markets around the world has taken a long-lasting hit, Johnson said in an interview on KFGO radio in Fargo, North Dakota. “It’s going to take much different behavior from future presidents in order to repair this damage,” he said.

Johnson, whose organization represents some 200,000 family farms, ranches and fishing enterprises in 33 states, agreed that China needs to be “held to account” for trade relationships and behavior. But he said that Trump would have been wiser to approach the world’s second-largest economy with a team of allies.

“I would ... argue that it would be far more effective if we did it with the rest of world, instead of first ticking off the rest of the world and then trying to do it all by ourself,” he said.

He called many of Trump’s policy decisions “very harmful to agriculture; all the trade disruption has been enormously damaging.”

Johnson said the U.S. will suffer “reputational damage ... for literally decades.” He also noted that “trade actions that this president have taken have done damage to lots of other parts of the economy” as well.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/national-farmers-union-roger-johnson-trump-trade-war-china_n_5d68b124e4b0488c0d122b1c?section=politics&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=politics_fb&fbclid=IwAR3Cv0I99vWovtH7chJJiM63YFTbjxqoJYyYcl_f-PHamtLDiaycQn919uM

[demosincebirth]

9. They constantly vote Republican. The chickend have, finally, come home to roost.

[Grins]

10. Tough. As I have repeatedly said...

“We tried to help. But you voted Republican.”