USDA Chief: Rural America Becoming Less Relevant

[farmbo]

8. They let themselves get played, time after time, by RW fear merchants

Just this year we heard breathless (and baseless) charges from RW groups that the over-reaching Obama Administration was going to:

1. Prohibit 4H kids from working on family farms (Dept. of Labor),

2. Require farmers to get CDLs for their farm trucks (USDOT),

3. Regulate every puddle on your farm (USEPA),

4. Eliminate animal agriculture (supporting Poultry negotiations with HSUS)

Of course, these charges were TOTAL BS from start to finish, but the RW Noise Machine pushed them-- hard. Sadly, with the exception of the Farmer's Union, farm groups helped to amplify the misinformation campaign.

The fact that, under Obama, both ag exports and farm income were at record levels was totally lost under the saturating din of the the Noise Machine, reliably spread through the toxic airwaves of rural America.

Then, even after the House GOP blocked the passage of the 5 year farm bill reauthorization, putting the drought-plagued Ag economy at risk, rural voters obediently turned out in November and voted-- against Obama.

Vilsack's right; they are in danger of becoming irrevelant.

Play the fool long enough and you become one.