A Red State Bumpkin

I am from a red state made up of many small business retailers and farmers who would vote Republican no matter who runs. I hate to see the rural pitted against the urban for “dumb farmers” was a painful insult to me as a child. Although I am a Ralph Nader supporter, I live amongst these Republicans and have been able to observe them for many years. Like many people, they are nice individually although they may be hard to fathom as a group. The urban archipelago has given one definition of the mentality of the red states and on some observations he is right, but I don’t agree that Midwest people are vicious and stupid. They are just uninformed and most get their news from Republican papers and from the corporate run television news and they believe in the principles of the Republican party of 40 years ago. Granted, there are some really dumb ones who listen to Limbaugh and religious zealots and don’t bother to check facts, but most don’t pay attention to politics or religion. Like in that old John Prine tune they “voted for Eisenhower ‘cause Lincoln won the war.”

I grew up in a farm family. City people hate that farmers get subsidies, but unlike minimum wage that has risen somewhat through the years, farm prices are still at 1930 levels. Even with subsidies, most small farmers are struggling to exist. It is only a matter of time before small farmers and subsidies are gone - absorbed into large megafarms that can dictate prices. And yes, it is unfair for farmers to get subsidies when small independent businesses do not, for they too are under pressure from unfair competition. Farm products are one of the few things we export because they are the only things cheap enough to compete on a world market. Unfortunately our balance of trade is not balanced at all, but grain sales are essential to the US economy.

Rural people value independence and they don’t want anyone telling them what to do. They dislike interference in their use of the land by environmentalists, who they hate. They think unions and environmentalists are who are driving business overseas, and I guess that is true. If those damn city folks would work for less than subsistence levels in polluted corporate factories, the farmers could buy cheaper machinery and help that bottom line that just keeps getting smaller.

I was saddened when I saw my niece in a anti-environmentalist T-shirt that said miners, farmers and foresters were endangered species so that useless animals can exist. She’s right about the end of independents (not because the environmentalists want to save endangered animals) because the independents will go the way of manufacturing as more of the middle class disappears. It is just a matter of time and if we fight amongst ourselves, the real enemies of democracy can walk away with the store.