Let's get one thing straight about the farmers squawking about their farms going under

[Cirsium]

30. Small farms here

No one is getting rich, far from it. A couple of big operators are building vertical monopolies, but most are struggling. And yes some of those big operators are gaming the system and getting a lot of public funds. But that is true in every industry. That's capitalism. Agriculture is more committed to benefiting the public than most industries.

The subsidies to agriculture are for the benefit of the general public: Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant colleges, the USDA, state ag agencies, Farm Credit, etc. As progressives we should strongly support the public ag infrastructure. It is under attack.

40-45% of the growers here vote Democratic. But so what? Owners in every industry trend Republican. Even in heavily agricultural district such as where I am, farmers - farm owners - are a very small percentage of the electorate. There are something like 100,000 people in the three counties here and about 350 growers. That is pretty much true everywhere. There are not enough farm owners to impact election results.

Let's look at Missouri, for example. There are 3,000,000 or so workers in Missouri, and there are about 27,000 farm workers, a few of whom are actually owners — “farmers.”

By way of comparison, there are 358,470 people working in office and administrative occupations; 251,150 transportation workers; 200,200 heath care practitioners; 257,610 food service workers; 239,430 work in sales; 197,350 factory workers; 181,350 in financial occupations; 169,240 work in education; 159,960 health care support workers; 120,100 installation and repair workers; 116,510 construction workers; 85,000 computer related jobs; 82,140 maintenance workers; 60,980 law enforcement and emergency services; 58,460 personal care workers; 46,640 social services workers; 35,520 in engineering jobs; 33,440 in arts and entertainment.

The Republicans make great hay with their "rugged individualism" stereotypes - Reagan on horseback, Bush and his phony ranch, Trump with all of his macho posturing. The Walter Mittys fantasizing about being pioneers, or cowboys, or ranchers, whatever, fall for that crap.

The endless attacks on farmers just make Democrats look ignorant and out of touch. It is extremely bad politics.