Question: Would a farmer have difficulty applying for a loan if their......

[70sEraVet]

only real income for the previous year was a government bailout?
After all, getting a one-time bailout indicates NOTHING about what their income will be in future years.
Certainly some DUer has some knowledge of this scenario.

[Prairie Gates]

1. Their loans are usually government subsidized anyway

The entire agricultural industry is run as a socialist carve-out, like the defense industry. The people most likely to spout free enterprise nonsense are actually the ones who most benefit from government handouts: farmers, defense contractors, tech bros.

Truly, any nose-ringed tattooed hipster who opens a little tattoo shop in a major city knows more about the market economy than any farmer: they are propped up by the government while they go to their MAGA rallies and cry about socialism.

[murielm99]

2. We farm and are lifelong Democrats and activists.

Take your slander and your insults of whole blocks of people elsewhere. If you want farmers to vote for Democrats, cut the crap.

[Wifes husband]

3. Well said

[kacekwl]

4. I agree but

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of farmers, ranchers are trump supporters by far.

[patphil]

6. The truth is that Trump had very strong support from farm communities in 2024.

Over 77% in the 2024 election.

https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/11/13/trump-election-farming-counties-trade-war/

It's frustrating to see such a large percentage voting for a man who is the antithesis of everything farmers believe in, and work for. I was born and raised in a small town in upstate New York. My father grew up on a Wisconsin farm, and was always a strong Democrat. He often told me that republicans never did a thing for the working man.
I don't engage in slander or insults, but it seems to me that there's a need for more perception on the part of that segment of the voting public.
Trump's a billionaire, and has no use for hard working lower and middle class people, except at election time. My father new this, I know this, but 77% of farmers apparently don't.
He uses people; sets one group against the other, tells whatever lie he thinks they will believe. And, it's been working for him. He continues to do this even now, as his popularity wanes due to his incredible incompetence and callous disregard for the damage he's doing to all of us in his quest for more money, power, and control.

I'm sorry this angers you, but if you let the frustration and anger of some Democrats become your anger, then Trump has done his job once again.
He divides and conquers very well.

[ForgedCrank]

7. The level

of disconnect sometimes hard to swallow. I used to try to bring the facts into the mix, but it just always ends badly for me and nothing else changes so it's not even worth it anymore

[Cirsium]

8. Ridiculous

Farmers - farm owners - voted the same way owners in every sector do, they skew Republican. But so what? There are not enough farmers to affect election results. Here in a heavily agricultural district, Harris got 44,000 votes and Trump got 47,000. There are about 300 full time growers. That amounts to 0.003% of the vote. About 45% of the growers here vote Democratic. You may as well bitch about auto parts store owners.

"Go to their MAGA rallies??" A Vance rally here attracted 10,000 people. Vance talked smack about farming. He said that tariffs and mass round ups of immigrants were going to help the farmers, and the crowd roared its approval. "Yeah, we are for the farmers!!!" Clue: they aren't farmers, although they do dress like farmers - as a fashion statement.

The Republicans are not really trying to win the farm vote, the cowboy vote, the lumberjack vote. They are pandering to the Walter Mittys out there, the people who identify with rugged he man images. Reagan on horseback, Bush with his phony ranch, Trump with his macho posturing - the Republicans are masters at playing to people fantasies abiut "real Americans" yippee yi yo ki yay and circle the wagons.

The "subsidies" - Farm Credit, Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant college system, the USDA and state ag departments, the regulatory and inspection protocols, conservation set asides, etc. - are the result of very progressive legislation and are under relentless attack from the right wingers. The purpose of those programs is to support the eaters, not the growers, and those programs are of tremendous benefit to the general public.

Never before in human existence has there been a population more alienated from and ignorant about their own food supply as people are today in the United States. Ignorant attacks on agriculture are far too common here. It is really bad politics.

[Blue Full Moon]

5. No more bailouts. They chose and they need to live with it.