What Do Rural Voters Here Think of Sanders' and Warren's Positions?

[ancianita]

This is about more than Iowa, where Dems are campaigning.

It's not about public lands, but farm lands. But their demonstration of care bodes well for those with public land issues, too.

Not being a rural voter myself, I think these ideas seem to show our candidates listening and giving constructive thought to the needs of rural voters.

Which is a damn sight better than anything they've gotten from Trump.

What say you?

For years, an ever-shrinking number of companies has hoovered up more and more control over our food. Amazon and Walmart are slowly taking over the regional grocery industry; Heinz and Kraft are now one company. At the base of the food chain, farmers may face the most tightly consolidated set of oligopolies of all: a handful of seed and pesticide companies (like Bayer, which took over Monsanto) that sell them what they need to grow crops, and another few that buy their crops and livestock. Caught between a few input providers and a few buyers, the region’s farmers have been struggling for years.

Sanders’ rural package also includes a remedy that hearkens back to the New Deal era: a proposal to help farmers of big commodity crops like corn and soybeans coordinate planting decisions to avoid chronic overproduction. This policy is known as supply management. He would reestablish a national grain reserve, a lapsed New Deal institution that collected excess crops in bountiful years to keep prices from plunging, and release them in bad years to avoid shortages (a notion that, as Sanders points out, makes lots of sense in an era of climate chaos).

Harvard Law professor Warren penned an influential article calling for the establishment of a federal commission designed to “eliminate the hidden tricks and traps” that banks and other lenders use to ensnare consumers ... The idea caught on among the Congressional creators of the the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and in 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau debuted—and has been under assault by Wall Street-aligned Congressional Republicans and later the Trump administration ever since.

The new CAP paper calls for an Independent Farmer Protection Bureau, “modeled after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” The IFPB would “investigate and stop abuses of market power; protect farmers’ contract rights …; combat anti-competitive practices in seed and other input markets”—and even have the power to “review and block mergers in markets that affect farmers.” And it would give debt-laden poultry and hog farmers, many of whom currently toil under contracts favorable to enormous meat companies who buy their animals, a federal watchdog to protect them from abuses.

“It looks like the Dems are really searching for a platform for rural America,” says Joe Maxwell, a Missouri hog farmer and executive director of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a farmer-led group that organizes against corporate control of agriculture. Maxwell is a savvy former politician in his own right—he’s a former state representative, senator, and lieutenant governor in his home state.

“We and others have been working hard to get these conversations into the public discourse for years,” Maxwell says. “And now they’re clearly taking on a life of their own.”

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/05/how-can-dems-win-back-rural-america-bernie-sanders-and-elizabeth-warren-agree-on-the-answer/

(photo from the USDA)

[murielm99]

1. We farm.

Rural voters are largely Republicans. The ones who are not are supporting Biden. There is a lot of support in Illinois for Mayor Pete.

Sanders does not have much of a following here. I haven't seen a single Warren supporter, and I am an activist.

There was an unscientific poll done by the ILDCCA that said Illinois Democrats support Bernie. Of course it was an internet poll that could be easily rigged. I think many of his former supporters have switched to Pete, and some of those most likely to vote in the primary are for Biden.

I do get out and about and talk to Democrats. I missed going to the Quad Cities this month, where there are a lot of Democrats. I am kicking myself for missing an opportunity to talk to people there, but my husband's health is precarious at the moment.

Are these Democrats going to Farm Bureau meetings, Beef and Pork Producer meetings? They should go, and they should listen before stating anything about policy. I know a couple of Democratic farmers around here who could take them to meetings. They should have town hall type meetings.

[ancianita]

3. Good advice. If they hear it is one thing. If they do it, it will show. It would also cut into

the Republican hold -- a big "maybe." But worth a try. What with this so-called tariff situation.

[redstatebluegirl]

2. My cousins took over the family farms in central Illinois.

Most farmers are Republican there, the ones who are not, like my cousins, think Warren and Bernie are to far left for them. They are reliable democratic voters. I think if a Democrat wants to get to know these people, go to county fairs when the 4H and FFA shows are going on, lots of farm families there. Farm Bureau meetings are good as well, not as many spouses at these, but farmers for sure. I don't get the feeling that any politician really understands the problems of family farmers and ranchers these days.

[ancianita]

4. Would you mind if I posted these ideas on Warren's FB page?

[redstatebluegirl]

5. Absolutely.

[ancianita]

6. Thank you very much. I'll tell her what you and muriel advised, in so many words...

I'll get back to you on whether her FB moderator lets the post stand. I doubt it will, but I'll give it a shot.

Here it is:

Senator Warren, it's one thing to get PR from 'Mother Jones' about the heartland's reception of your ideas. It's another to cut into the majority Republican vote there.

I offer good, free-of-charge advice from two Midwest Democratic farmers below, one of whom said, "I don't get the feeling that any politician really understands the problems of family farmers and ranchers these days.”

These farmers say that you should listen before stating anything about policy.

Have Democratic farmers take you to …
1. Go to county fairs when the 4H and FFA shows are on — lots of farm families there — listen, get ideas.
2. Go to Farm Bureau meetings — there are not as many spouses at these, but farmers for sure.
Second farmer:
3. You should have town hall type meetings, where farm region people are invited, and using the usual Q-A format.

Any combination of actions above cannot help but gain you more Republican farmer, even rancher, votes.

[murielm99]

7. This is a good idea.

Sometimes, no matter who we are, we just need someone to listen to us.

[ancianita]

8. You're the ones with the good ideas. I'm just passing them along.