Great post. Your points on ag subsidies in general are spot on. Not any other of the industries I can think of are dependent on weather as a major input. How many acres of corn are being grown (in lieu of other grain crop) just to satisfy the Fed Govt mandate on ethanol in gasoline? How much extra money do they get? What else could you grow in their place?
Farmer subsidies didnt start with Trump Do you know why youve always seen cows grazing near power plants Power companies put cattle there to declare the land is being used for agriculture for a tax deduction
Or they bale it into hay, or they graze it. What else could you do with your mandated setback? The ag deduction (if they didn't get an ag deduction they'd get a wildlife one just the same) they get is only for the actual parts that animals can use. Just like anyone else.
I dont have a problem with it. Just making a point this isn't a Trump issue although i understand the anger surrounding the decrease in agriculture exports because of the tariffs
But the bailouts due to a poorly thought out trade war was due to Trump which is why the farmers are getting so much money in 2019. Not to mention, it’s the GOP states and counties that overwhelmingly receive these subsidies. If farmers can get welfare, what’s the problem with other welfare?
ag is Part of national security interests same as it is with supply chain of vital resources like aluminum. Trump doesn’t care about either. The absolute funniest thing is The TPP would have made fighting China so much easier. Trump pulling out from tpp has weaken the US. The TPP was organized to fight the Chinese economic aggression
Yes they are paid to produce something we all need and on the other hand someone is paid to consume what they need. Something is being produced directly or indirectly.
Trump isn’t a free marketer, he isn’t even a conservative and Trumpism isn’t about free markets. For that matter most farmers aren’t really free marketers either. This is about populism and it should be no surprise that the original populists were strongest in the Midwest in farm country. Populism is skeptical about free markets and has not problem pushing for government intervention when it is done in the service of farms and workers. This is why The Minnesota Democratic Party is still called the DFL, Democratic Farmer Labor, it sprang from the populist union of farmers with labor unions. Unfortunately for the DFL now is much of that support is now for a trump.
So true. It's why I'm amazed that rural voters have abandoned so much of that. Even in popular culture. Look at Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, the old Westerns like Wyatt Earp, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, and so many others. Things that espoused traditional values etc. weren't in line with Trump or conservatism, but these voters seemed to have abandoned all of that for whatever reasons.
From talking to some of these people it is all about social issues, hatred of elites (cultural, financial and intellectual), xenophobia, and tribalism. Many of them know that Trump is a con man but they believe that Democrats are evil and as long as Trump is fighting Democrats they have to support him.
It is and this why I believe that things will not end well with this Administration and we are in for some rough times the next year.
It is possible. I like to think that removing Trump and putting in a person with more integrity will help soften the edges of Trump's support. I think there will be a core that will try, but the further removed we are from Trump the more those on the outside of his support will gradually fade away. The circle of Trump supporters and haters of everything else will gradually shrink down. I'll be ready for the worst and hope for the best.
