"I had no idea that badgers would eat my face", says Badgers Will Eat My Face Party voter...

[ColesCountyDem]

It continues to amaze me that people being hurt by Trump's policies are surprised that Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do, during the 2016 general election campaign.

"THOMPSONVILLE — Farmer Leon McClerren hesitantly cast a ballot for President Donald Trump in 2016. If elections were held this week, he said, he likely wouldn’t cast that same vote.

McClerren farms commodity crops in Franklin County, a part of Southern Illinois that made history by going red in the 2016 election. In several interviews with The Southern since the election, he has been cautiously optimistic about some of the president’s policies, but expressed concern regarding Trump’s trade ideas.

This hasn’t changed as rhetoric heats up between the U.S. and China regarding tariffs and trade deals. He said he likely isn’t the only farmer having a hard time with what he’s seeing on the news.

“I believe that farmers in general are very frustrated right now,” he said. As prices for grain fall and McClerren and others see their biggest customer impose retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural products, they are left asking a big question...."

https://thesouthern.com/news/local/southern-illinois-farmers-struggle-amid-ongoing-us-china-trade-tensions/article_487ce936-bf05-5ed5-a431-4a3ecb6c9641.html

[Botany]

1. Stick your face into that hole ... vote republican Mr. Farmer

[genxlib]

2. Now I finally understand that expression

Honey Badger Don't Care.

That particular badger doesn't give a shit about you.

[alterfurz]

3. "He tells it like it is!"

[ColesCountyDem]

4. Both of these guys are intelligent, university-educated, successful farmers

I know both Mr. McClerren and Mr. Miller. They are both very bright, graduates of the University of Illinois-CU, and very successful in an industry that can be very 'iffy', particularly in Southern Illinois. They're one type of voter that the GOP's 'guns, God and gays' strategy attracts. It's easy to dismiss them as poorly-educated, low-information voters, when, in fact, they are neither. They understand business management, international trade and how our economy functions. From the Great Depression until Reagan's 1980 campaign, both families were 'yellow dog Democrats'.

My question is how do we win these voters back?

[TygrBright]

6. It's possible, but it will take doing other things FIRST...

Like, winning an electoral majority that includes EVERYONE but the 30-some percent of people who have decided that "pwning the Libs" is their hill to die on, politically.

Then we have to:

1) Bite the bullet and FIX the electoral system, which includes four parts:
a) Un-gerrymander the Congressional Districts and state/local legislatures
b) Restore voter-verified paper balloting and implement ranked-choice or other runoff mechanism
c) Get the corporate and oligarch money out of the campaign finance system
d) Shut down the revolving door between public office and lucrative post-officeholding bribe jobs

2) Initiate a serious, multi-level, long-running investigation into Russian influence in our media, economy, and political system

3) Restore the Fairness Doctrine or implement a similar form of incentive/disincentive system for media to present a regular offering of actual news that conforms to a shared standard of objectivity and accuracy, including limitations on media owners' personal political biases being forced on local affiliates and subsidiaries in the guise of 'editorial' presentations

4) Work internationally to create and implement, and enforce standards for social media that will balance the maximum feasible freedom of speech with protections against manipulation and exploitation

5) Work internationally to create, implement, and enforce standards to ensure user privacy and control of personal information on the internet, including limitations on tracking, ad targeting and other much-abused surveillance

6) Implement an effective anti-robocall system that protects both landline and cell phone users from spam callers, scammers, and exploitative targeted calls (the suggestion of a universal one-cent tax per call is a good start, but may not be enough

7) Fix the public education system so that all public schools have highly qualified and paid teaching staff, resources, and curricula based in science and responsible shared social values

Then keep that all going for a generation or so.

Those of that group who are still alive may well be won back by then.

helpfully,
Bright

[Hekate]

8. Now that's an actual Plan

[Maru Kitteh]

7. We don't. They are a demographic both dwindling and dying. We focus on the future. A future

that will benefit them as well. They can join us, or not.

I am sick to death of kissing white farmer's assess and handing them billions of our tax dollars while they scream about "welfare" and "socialism."

I'm sick of listening to their racist bullshit about immigrants "milking the system" while they pay undocumented workers less than peanuts every season, and put up four and five families at a time in broken, dangerous, rodent-infested single-wide trailers from the 1970's.

Enough already. We need to focus on the future of this party and this country - and it ain't those guys. Let them keep putting their face in the badger hole if they like. We'll be out here, moving forward.

[lunatica]

9. Using their own intelligence should be what wins them over

not us.

[ProudLib72]

11. Sounds to me like we don't have to. The Rump has lost them for good

I can't see them voting for an independent. Can you?

The only question now is, Will they vote at all?

[hvn_nbr_2]

5. K&R for the subject line alone. nt

[lunatica]

10. The title alone will attract every DUer and lurker around!

It’s why I clicked on it.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. It's leopards, not badgers

Last edited Mon May 20, 2019, 03:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Here's the original:

Link to tweet

[ColesCountyDem]

13. Thank you!

I couldn't recall with any certainty, but I remembered the essential thrust, and chose badgers.