How Can Dems Win Back Rural America? Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Agree on the Answer

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

That might sound like a wonky pitch. But it gets to the core of one of the main forces eroding rural America—and voters are starting to take note. 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). No major candidate since Jesse Jackson, who ran during the height of a brutal farm crisis in the 1980s, has proposed supply management, according to Iowa corn and soybean farmer and long-time rural activist George Naylor.

(snip)

The report brims with facts that illustrate the plight of farmers operating under the shadow of a few seed and pesticide behemoths, which wield massive power over farmers’ expenses—and their incomes. For instance: “Between 1995 and 2011, the cost of purchasing seed to plant one acre of soybeans and corn increased 325 percent and 259 percent, respectively, while yield per acre only increased 18.9 percent and 29.7 percent, respectively.” While farmers made only a small amount more for each acre they cultivated, the cost of planting those acres exploded.

And that was before the most recent spasm of mergers, during which the Big Six seed companies became the Even Bigger Four: Bayer subsumed Monsanto; Dow and DuPont fused their agribusiness units into Corteva Agriscience, Chinese conglomerate ChemChina bought Syngenta; and German chemical giant BASF beefed up its seed/pesticide offerings.

(snip)

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

(snip)


With 30 percent of the Iowa economy tied up in agriculture, the concentration crisis seems like fertile ground for Democrats. The way of life of the independent family farmer is slowly slipping away, supplanted by mammoth agribusinesses: industrial-sized confinement lots, ruthless livestock companies and seed merchants, monoculture crops stretching for miles. These monopolists have grabbed a significant share of food profits; farmers used to earn 37 cents of every retail dollar, now down to only 15.

(snip)

Vilsack was heavily recruited to run for Senate against Republican Joni Ernst in 2020, but announced earlier this year that he would take a pass. Speaking on the “Iowa Starting Line” podcast last month, he warned Democratic candidates against talking about farm monopolies. “Well, there are a substantial number of people hired and employed by those businesses here in Iowa,” Vilsack said. “So you’re essentially saying to all of those folks, you might be out of a job. That’s not to me a winning message.”

If the conversation is about lost jobs, Vilsack has it backward: Farm consolidation causes job loss, from family farmers cashing out to Bayer cutting 12,000 jobs when it merged with Monsanto.

(snip)

Prices for milk have plummeted since 2014, leading to the closure of around 4,600 dairy farms per year, a number that is expected to accelerate. The problem is a small set of monopoly purchasers. A single processor slowing purchases, as Grassland Dairy Products did in 2017, can lead to disaster. Some dairy companies have begun to include a list of suicide prevention hotlines in the envelope with farmers’ checks.

(snip)


https://theintercept.com/2019/05/06/tom-vilsack-dairy-farm-monopoly/

[CrispyQ]

1. After the tariffs went into effect a journalist went to rural America to talk to farmers.

They were pissed as hell at Trump but everyone of them said they would never vote for a democrat. The reporter pointed out that some really good farm policies were democratic policies but the farmers would have none of it.

That's the result of 35+ years of unchallenged hate radio. The dems have ignored hate radio & still do. You want to reach rural voters? Give them something to listen to besides the hate, lies, & drivel of Limbaugh & his ilk. That Tom Steyer guy would get bang for his buck if he financed a few radio stations instead of running for office.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Bingo. I know some of those farmers. They're being ruined by these tariffs,

but they still love Trump. They think that somehow he'll eventually fix all the problems they have despite the fact that he's creating them. I love the idea of buying AM radio stations that broadcast something besides right-wing lies and hate because that's where so much of the ugliness came from.

[dogman]

4. They have become the new "welfare queens".

With their half a million dollar tractors, sitting in the barn. The irony escapes them however.

[StarfishSaver]

20. Hate radio is prevalent in these areas because this is what these people want to listen to

Replacing it with positive Democratic messages won't do much good since, if they wanted to listen to something other than what they're listening to, they'd listen to something else.

[KPN]

32. Seems contradictory to starfish saving. If the

starfish were worth saving, they wouldn’t need saving.

[StarfishSaver]

38. I can't save all the starfish so I'm saving the ones I can

And the ones I can save are somewhere else.

I don't think those particular starfish want to be saved anyway - they're perfectly happy baking on the beach. And if I throw them back in, they'll crawl right back out to bake some more. They like it there.

And even if there's hope of saving them, this middle-aged black woman isn't the one to do it successfully. I and people like me are one of the main reasons they make the choices they make - they see us as the "other" who caused their problems and whom Trump and the Republicans are rescuing them from. So I'm not interested in being their Magical Negro running up and down the beach trying to save them from themselves and their "saviors." I'm going to focus on people who want my help and who will benefit from it.

[KPN]

41. The baking on the beach parts made me smile. That's

understandable.

My wife is retiring next month after 25 years of teaching at-risk youth in not-for-profit high school. For years I would try to convince her she should move to public schools where pay was better and there were actually benefits. She always declined saying simply that she didn’t want to teach in public schools. And that was that. But I know her and understood.

On occasion over the years, she has had an acquaintance — usually a public school teacher or his/her spouse — ask her how she can stand teaching “those kids”. She would always find that question annoying, but would politely respond that she found the challenge and occasional successes much more rewarding. She couldn’t save them all, but she could save some every year she’d say. She would always give the same examples. Some were the first in their families to ever have actually graduated. Then there is the one who actually continued on and years later got a PhD from Columbia University. He — as did most of those who graduated — has always stayed in touch with her she’d explain.

She has always said you can’t save them all. But that they are all “at-risk” for reasons usually not entirely of their own making. Almost always, she says, they are much more intelligent than “we” — meaning the public system — give them credit for; that in the public system they are typically and quite simply viewed as “problems”. Some, she says, are ultimately irredeemable. The reasons that put them “at risk” much deeper, a greater malady. But every year there are some among the 15 or 20 that she can help. That’s why she does it, she says.
......

I’m glad we have some like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg who don’t over-simplify and just view fly-over America as a “problem”. Perhaps there are others among our candidates as well. I hope so. They — the “problems” — can’t all be the same; they can’t all deserve giving up on.

[StarfishSaver]

42. I agree with your friend.

When it comes to education, we can't save every child. But we have no idea which ones we can save and which ones we can't. So we have to reach and teach them all so that the little Barak Obamas and Alexandria Ovasio-Cortezes and Bill Gateses can emerge.

But that's different than expending extra energy trying to convince grown people to vote a certain way

[KPN]

43. Ah, but it's not about convincing. Isn't it more

about some of them having the ability to see and learn and act accordingly?

Your most recent OP actually supports educating voters and encourages us all to chip in to do so. There’s a Kris Kristofferson song you remind me of. The Pilgrim I think it’s called.

[StarfishSaver]

45. I'm all for educating voters, especially those in our community

I just don't want certain voters - especially unreliable ones - catered to at the expense of others.

[KPN]

47. Catered to? How so? Campaigning in all 50 States?

[DURHAM D]

3. Spot on. nt

[Uncle Joe]

5. Hate radio has been around at least since the 1980s

and yet




Although it certainly matters, the issue today is about more than just about tariffs, it includes monopolization resulting with farmers' getting squeezed on both sides with their incomes continually falling behind, the right to repair, the revolving door and a host of other issues mentioned in the OP.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. The hate message is

24/7 in most rural areas. My Farm Contacts are all in with Trump at this point in time. Even when they have Beans and Corn Mortgaged at 10 dollars on beans bringing 7.50 at the Elevator,and 5 + on Corn bringing less than 3 dollars . Yes they believe Trump is going to use Tariff dollars to buy back their Corn and Beans. Yes they do not understand that they started paying those new Tariff's at the Feed Store and at their Wally world today. But,they heard this on the Tractor Radio the other day,so it must be the truth.

Our message in save these folks from themselves has to address what the hell is really going on.

Oh btw,when it comes to the Dairy Industry,that blame goes to two companies. WalMart and White Wave Foods( Davis Family)and their ability to manipulate the PR as well as the Raw Fluid Milk Prices. When you have one Corporate Dairy milking 37k cows in eleven Midwest States and based out of Indiana with a direct contract with WalMart and White Wave,well,the rest of the Industry is on the outside looking in.

[Blue_true]

22. I don't think that political solutions fix those problems Uncle Joe.

Farmers have had price support since the early seventies, yet family farms have continuously lost ground. Now the big family farms are in trouble. The road ahead only gets worse for them.

Take milk for example, a lot of the price drop is due to big companies exerting their scale on the market, but a huge part is due to popularity of milk substitutes. Go into any milk isle, more than half the offerings are milk substitutes, at the Publix Market that I shop at in Florida, it looks like 75% of the shelf space is milk substitutes. Guess who owns the milk substitute supply? The big companies moved into that area big years ago when there was only soy milk as an alternative offered at health food stores. They have squeezed out health food stores and family milk producers.

As I pointed out in another post, climate change is going to wipe out family farms of all sizes. It would make sense for family farmers to jump on the climate action effort, but they won't, they proudly vote for the deniers in large numbers.

[Uncle Joe]

40. Regarding climate change and sustainable farming

The Green New Deal would benefit independent family farmers

(snip)

Introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ocasio-Cortez, the GND is meant to move the U.S. forward in mitigating climate change—an important and necessary measure. This is something that farmers, who suffer significantly from the impacts of climate change, should back. As noted in a recent press release, National Farmers Union believes farmers must lead the charge in combatting climate change. This is a notion that I, as vice president for Indiana Farmers Union, fully support.

The Green New Deal proposes to work collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector. The resolution stands in support of family farming, sustainable farming, and land use practices that increase soil health and build food systems that provide universal access to healthy food. These are all great provisions.

(snip)

While family farmers are facing more challenges than ever, we continue to be passionate about our responsibility to be good stewards of water, land and environment. The GND is a first step to tilt farm policy toward supporting those efforts, rather than lining the pockets of corporate agribusiness.

In the Farmers Union, we have a saying that we regularly share with the many farmers we represent: “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” The Green New Deal brings all of these important points to the table. It calls for support of independent family farms, sustainable farming, and healthy land practices and food systems. As independent family farmers, that’s something we can all sink our teeth into.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/430471-the-green-new-deal-would-benefit-independent-family-farmers

Indiana Farmers Union Female Farmer Chapter Hosts First Seed and Planting Swap

The newly established female farmer chapter, known as Females Farming Forward, is under Indiana Farmers Union. Indianapolis City Market. The event will offer guests a chance to purchase and/or trade seeds and plantlings in time for the start of the 2018 growing season.

Seed saving protects and preserves biodiversity of seeds, which helps strengthen local food systems, encourages educational and community resource building, protects area pollinators, and honors our cultural history and agricultural heritage. All are welcome, and seeds and plantlings are not a requirement for guests to attend. Hand-crafted, farmer-made door prizes will be given to the first 25 attendees.

Who are the Females Farming Forward?

The female farmer chapter formed in early January of 2018, and it is the first of its kind in the history of Indiana Farmers Union and its parent organization, National Farmers Union. Made up of approximately 15 forward-thinking female Hoosier farmers, the chapter embraces and encourages the sustainable production of food, fiber, feed, fuel, and flowers. The chapter is seeking additional members to grow its participation in community events and state presence in coming years.

(snip)


https://www.nuvo.net/calendar/indiana-farmers-union-female-farmer-chapter-hosts-first-seed-and/event_8104b25c-392f-11e8-9d41-8b4263e061e0.html

I believe the rural community; being closer to nature in general are becoming all too aware of the threat from climate change.

I also believe given an even playing field, family farms are more flexible to change than the major industrial size farms.

[Hortensis]

46. Based on what for both? We're rural dwellers and know

rural liberals and conservatives, farmers and gardeners.

Conservatives have for the most part been using faith to stay loyal to their party for what cannot be supported by rationality. That's true whether rural or urban.

Feeling "close to the land" is a real thing, but compartmentalization allows them to keep their feelings and observations AND their denial. We know true nature lovers who haven't read National Geographic or watched a nature documentary in years because they mention climate change. And by that they know these media are all corrupt.

And, sadly, there are the other millions of rural dwellers who clear-cut their lots so they don't have to rake or clean leaves out of gutters and then hide all summer in air-conditioned boxes with the windows tight shut. Same as suburban and urban.

On the plus side, though we certainly cannot win "back" (!) rural conservatives we never had, we're already winning minds and voters in rural areas. REMEMBER the midterms? When suburbs went blue and rural areas around the nation went pink? That thrilled me so much I don't know how anyone could forget.

[Blue_true]

52. I hope small farmers are more amendable to change, but the way they currently

vote in large numbers make me doubt that. Maybe new people like the Female Farmers Cooperative will change that narrative. The stuff mentioned in your snip are vital, traceable seeds that have not been bioengineered, sustainable farming practices and water management practices. I truly wish them luck but feel that they will eventually be a nitch of all production, the majority of consumers care about how much something cost, not how nutrient rich it is. Paradoxically, good food can actually cost less. I live in Florida. We are seeing the first of the season local produce. The flavor difference with the imported winter stuff is enormous, easy to see, but most people still buy their melons at Publix or Walmart, not the local farm trucks beside the road selling locally produced melons, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers.

I think that the Green New Deal can be enormous to farming, but AOC and others will need to fight hard to prevent it from getting coopted and taken over by Big Ag, like Certified USDA Organic was taken over by Big Ag and Non-GMO labeling is in the process of being taken over by Big Ag. I hope that I am wrong, but I have seen how the movie ended before and am wary.

[SidDithers]

7. Don't risk the base by trying to appeal to the white racists...

who voted for Trump. They’re not going to switch.

Sid

[sheshe2]

11. +1000!

[StarfishSaver]

19. Thank you!

[KPN]

33. How would appealing to more people by way

of policies and goals that are good for the environment, good for the economy long range, good for sustainability and, therefore, good for those particular people as well as everyone else “risk the base”?

[StarfishSaver]

39. Here's how

1. When limited political resources and attention are shifted away from GOTV, fighting voter suppression, etc. to efforts to attract white rural voters, that's a problem

2. When we water down messaging and run away from specific policies because they're "identity politics" that could offend rural white voters (who, for some reason, are never seen as an "identity&quot , that's a problem.

3. When we don't recognize that one of the primary reasons that these white rural voters don't support Democrats is that they despise and fear our diversity and attention to minority concerns and so, the only way to get them back is to make them think that those things (and we) aren't really that important (back to "We don't DO 'identity politics'&quot , that's a problem.

4) When we treat black and brown voters as if we're blind, deaf and stupid and can't see it when people in our party ignore us so they can woo people who can't stand us and want us to go away, and tell us to shush and don't make too many demands or too much noise because we might offend the white people who kicked us all in the teeth and if we're too there, they might not want to come back to the tent they left and stay away from because WE'RE in it, that's a problem.

[KPN]

48. I'm not convinced. I don't buy the either-or perspective. Nor do I buy the perspective that all

white voters in red States who voted for tRump did so because they are bigots.

[madville]

8. Not going to matter

Rural voters are overwhelmingly Pro-Gun and Pro-Life. They aren't swinging for any candidate endorsing things counter to that.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Agreed

Also, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to compare this to some Soviet-style "five year plan" type of socialism that folks in farm country just don't want any part of.

[Blue_true]

23. Exactly right.

I was reading an old article last week about a farmer trying a new cash crop in Florida. He was helped mightily by a Big State U researcher, but pretty much all his thanks was to Jesus Christ. You think a guy like that vote for or will vote for ANY democrat?

[LibFarmer]

9. Tilting at windmills

has not been in vogue since 1615.

In today's society, futility is recognized earlier and not recognizing it is considered insanity.

[abqtommy]

12. My take on the "need to win back rural America"

is that the fact that Hillary won the popular vote by a count of 3 million in 2016 shows that we're already winning. Perhaps we can do more good to fight the corruption that resulted in awarding the pRESIDENTcy to tRump and the reTHUGlicans!

[Rhiannon12866]

30. I agree!

We have to concentrate on every effort to prevent another election from being stolen. I count three in my lifetime - but the last one was perpetrated by a hostile foreign power.

[George II]

13. Interesting electoral college maps below. Might be better to concentrate on our strengths and....

....swing states.

"Rural America" have rarely been Democratic.

https://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/

[Uncle Joe]

17. I like that link George

1932, 1936 and 1964 seem to be the most dominant years for the Democratic Party in the rural states and for that matter the rest of the nation.

I imagine 1964 had sympathetic influence on the electorate after JFK's assassination but all three shared major reform periods as well.

I don't remember which politician or adviser said something to the effect of I would rather govern with a small majority like 51% of the vote because it was "easier," I believe it was a Republican but could be wrong.

If you wish to fight the Republicans for half a loaf, you might get lucky enough to receive a quarter but the odds are against it.

[Blue_true]

24. I agree. Put the proper resources into Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvanis

Wisconsin, Michigan, maybe Iowa (which has recently gone with us). Hold Colorado and New Mexico. Spend money in red states only if we can pick up House of Senate seats. I am afraid that red states are going to have to get beaten into the ground before the reality that voters there vote against their best interests hit home, but then a lot of those places will be gone or opiod dens as the young that have something going on get the hell out of there.

[Celerity]

37. great link!

[loyalsister]

14. What winning back rural America might mean?

Suppose the goal isn't necessarily to win votes from the most socially conservative voters, but to deprive Trump of votes.
While their heart of hearts may keep someone from voting for a Democrat, they may feel that they've been burned enough to look elsewhere. I know in my state there's always a Libertarian or Constitution party candidate who may represent an alternative.

With that in mind, policies that improve their opportunities and lives may just be about finally doing what government is supposed to do to pick up slack where capitalism and powerful interests have oppressed them. Maybe they'll show affirmative recognition with their votes, maybe they'll breathe a sigh of relief and let someone else do the voting while they maintain their conservative certitude, or maybe it won't make a difference to them even after a Democratic president manages to implements such an agenda. In any case, this is an overdue policy that could benefit people who have been suffering.

[Blue_true]

25. You present a reasonable argument.

Here in Florida if the democrat picks up 1000-1500 votes more in red counties in a statewide race, victory is a good possibility. The problem is that our candidates run big city campaigns here and leave red country democrats and independents to their own devices. An Elizebeth Warren coming to my county of around 400,000 makes a huge dent in Trumps total out of this red county because she gets thousands who may not have voted to show up, most of them for her. The next county up is Alachua County, very blue county, but jacking the Dems and Indies up there pulls out potentially thousands of more blue votes from that roughly 315,000 person county.

[loyalsister]

29. Ever impressive

I forgot to mention the people who didn't vote in 2016. Those are potentially persuadable voters because many have a perspective that they have been burned by both parties. If they finally see themselves in a campaign they may respond by backing a Democratic candidate with enthusiasm.
Warren is smart to go to counties where potential Democrtic voters have dismissed in presumed defeat. They seem to be building a serious action plan that can present serious opportunity to do a lot of good in those regions, if we have a POTUS who can build relationships in those communities and present a plan that can motivate and excite voters who have sat.
I do a lot of canvasing and there is one saddening response I hear far too often. "I'll look it over, but I don't vote because I only get mail from them when need something from me." I live in a uniquely civic minded community and have easy access to state, city, and county electeds. The trouble is that not everyone knows.

What you described has given me an ah-ha moment.And I'm going to pitch it to some organizers. I have to work out details.

[Blue_true]

53. One of the great successes of President Obama was that he spent a good number of days

in the small places during both of his campaigns. Trump personally came to my county during the 2016 general, I could visibly see how that bucked up his supporters, they went wild and their energy went through the roof. Our side sent no one. I talked to people trying to convince them to vote as Election Day neared, one constant refrain that I heard was "they don't think about us", these were democrats talking about our party, Trump had bucked up his people here, so the "they don't care" people were not talking about republicans.
I was dismayed by our 2016 Florida campaign. The immediate four county complex where I live, over a million people or 1/5 the population of New Hampshire was ignored by our campaign, except for occasional mailers, we saw no big names, the candidate stayed at least 80 miles away in the big population areas of Hillsborough, Orange and Duval counties. In Florida and many other purple and pink states, gaining margin in the smaller counties that collectively represent a lot of people is critical. That is what I hope a Buttigieg, Bernie, Warren, Biden or Harris realize and plan for.

[KPN]

34. Exactly -- "overdue policy that could benefit

people” regardless of their mistaken beliefs.

[Amimnoch]

15. Crap. Pure crap.

Unless we’re willing to give up on gun regulation, women’s reproductive rights, and stop supporting GLBT rights; it’s not going to happen.

They will happily and repeatedly vote against their own personal and financial well-being as long as the tRumpublicon party keeps on being pro gun, anti-woman, anti GLBT.

[Politicub]

16. I'm from rural America and I say

let it languish and place more focus on abolishing the electoral college.

I know that isn’t a popular sentiment. But where I’m from, it’s a heavily government-subsidized cauldron of simmering right-wing shit.

I’m here now to visit my parents.

Oh sure, it’s beautiful. The mountains are covered with lovely green trees. The creek bubbling in front of their house looks like a postcard.

But peel back the layers. In town today I saw a sign in front of a store with something about god making male and female along with a nonsensical Bible verse. I wish people weren’t so chicken and just say what they really feel... that they are bigots and are so showy, that they feel need to make a sign about it. There is this kind of thing all over.

There is so much that government subsidizes here. In the local paper there was an article about how some government agency was ready to take applications for some ag subsidy. Almost everyone is on some kind of government assistance.

I support government assistance. I think it’s the right and moral thing to do since not everyone is privileged. Most kids get free lunch at school, and they ought not go hungry. But most of the people vote for the most conservative representatives. Candidates out and out say that they’re against this program and that, and they want to cut food stamps and other aid for the neediest, but it doesn’t matter.

There has been a brain drain happening for at least 30 years. The kids who go to college by and large do not come back to put down roots. That is my story, too.

The top employer is an Indian casino. The hospital is all but closed. It is more of a place for seriously ill patients to get triaged before they are airlifted to a regional mega-hospital. There used to be two hospitals in the county. Now there’s just this pseudo hospital and people complain about how awful it is. It goes without saying that the state didn’t accept the Medicaid expansion.

I don’t see how we’re going to win over people with a message. Even the most finely crafted, logical and simple message will be rejected. People wrap themselves with hate like a warm blanket.

This is in the southeast. Perhaps farm country is different, but I doubt it. We need a food supply so flyover country should not be ignored.

But we should not be beholden to them for our government policies. I know we must get enough electoral votes by winning swing states and getting democrats elected down ballot, too. I’m not against continuing to subsidize their lifestyle. But I don’t want to live by their backward ways.

I can’t wait until I get back to the city. People have to learn to live in a diverse population, and viscerally feel how important infrastructure and shared services are. It’s a travesty and a flaw in our system that we are governed by geography rather than what most people want.

[Blue_true]

26. My county has long depended on government jobs.

The police agencies, state, local, county, small federal contingent. We have county, city and state police patrolling some of the same areas, it's insane but it provides jobs. The medical community here thrives on Medicare patients, without them it's 1/4 of what it is now, if that. Government is big here, much bigger than any blue state, city or county that I have ever visited.

[MarcA]

49. They'll keep on voting that way even after the kochs take over their farms

and benefits and reduce them to an impoverished feudal lifestyle.

[Blue_true]

18. Uncle Joe, the only question about the grocery business is whether Amazon

can get enough scale there to compete with Walmart. Walmart is slowly wiping out regional grocers across the country. Here in Florida, Winn Dixie is pretty much gone, Albertson abandoned much of the state. The only chain left standing is Publix, but if you drive by a Walmart grocer and a Publix Market you see about 4-6x the vehicles at Walmart. I have taken my elderly brother to Walmart, during those times a cursory look at every purchase near him in the checkout lane that we were in showed every purchase had groceries in it to an extent from 40% to the entire purchase being groceries.

With Walmart's dominance comes the advantage of scale. Soon Walmart will own all the distribution channels (fall, winter and summer harvests from around the globe) completely, giving it the power to choke a Publix out.

As far as the family farm is concerned, the small ones are as good as done. The medium to large family farms will soon be where the small ones are. Climate change will make the situation worse as food production will increasingly shift to tower farms that use land and water more efficiently. Only the big food producers have the resources to set up tower farms. I just don't see political solutions that are doable today changing that dynamic. Soon our food production will be done by maybe five to ten mega-giants. Our groceries will come from Amazon or Walmart. There will be tiny specialty shops like health food grocers, but they will serve a tiny population, maybe 0.1 of 1% of grocery purchases. That is the coming reality, IMO.

[Jake Stern]

28. As a former Floridian I LOVE Publix

The service was incredible, they frequently had items that couldn't be found elsewhere and the free antibiotic program was a lifesaver.

Don't get me started on the subs. Mmmmmmmm.

That being said, Publix was also PRICEY. For staples I would go to WD or during their short lived expansion to the Orlando market, Kash N Karry but when I wanted a delicious tres leche or that Canadian cheddar that melts in your mouth or to pick up some lotto tickets I'd visit Publix.

It was nice to shop for a few things there and it was the closest store but it simply wasn't economical to pay Publix prices for regular shopping.

[Blue_true]

54. Publix does do very good prepackaged convenience food.

Whether it is subs or cakes, they do it well. And their produce section is good for a supermarket. But customer foot traffic is critical in the grocery business and Publix is losing to Walmart big there, IMO.

Winn Dixie was always crappy, so it vanishing is no loss. I remember being told about how that chain didn't serve Blacks during segregation. Maybe it wasn't true, but even if service was just reluctant, images stick in time. I personally only remember integrated grocery shopping, following my mom around and seeing all types of people in the grocery isles, it's hard for me to imagine anything else.

[StarfishSaver]

21. Why are we still trying to chase these voters who clearly are not interested in voting Democratic?

There are plenty more voters in other parts of the country who WILL vote for Democrats if we just focus on protecting their right to vote, help them get to the polls, and make sure their votes are counted.

[Blue_true]

27. We go there to cut into Trumps margin in the purple states or ones that

are trending like Georgia. If we can pull several hundred to a couple thousand votes out of red counties in states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, our advantage in the cities get magnified. BUT, we must also put massive resources into maximizing voter participation in the big cities of said states. One issue that I have with our campaigns in Florida is that except for an occasional mailer in mailboxes, no one came to my county or the nearby three counties, more than 1 million people in a state of 20 million, we lost the last presidential race by around 115,000, the governor's race by 35,000 and the US Senate race by around 14,000. There are a lot more counties like mine in Florida that there are Dade, Hillsborough, Orange, Duval, ect.

[mtnsnake]

50. Please tell me you're not serious.

[Kurt V.]

31. the gains in rural districts in the mids didn't go unnoticed. think tanks like the center for

American progress et al are targeting some of these areas for 2020.

[KPN]

35. I dunno. Behind the let's not waste resources on

a lost case argument it seems like a lot of focus on me, not them. As if that is the only choice ...

How about we just cut off our noses to spite our face?

[wasupaloopa]

36. The majority of rural America are not farmers. And most farms are agribusiness.

I lived in Rural America for a number of years. My neighbors were politically conservative and religiously Christian. There was no other reason other than it was passed down to them by their parents.

Anything from outside the community was looked on with suspicion. It was comforting to be able to have a common way of thinking. It went with the common way people lived.

We all wore western clothes jeans. western shirts, western hats and boots. We all owned horses. Cattle roamed free. Everyone had a manure pile and the smell of horse shit was pleasing. Everyone was a gun owner. We never locked our doors at night. Everyone waved hi to everyone else. We all drove pickups.

We had pot luck dinners to raise money for someone in need. We had karaoke every Sat night at the old school house that served as a country store and restaurant.

We picked up our mail at the post office and hauled our trash to the dump. We all saw each other at the feed store. Vets sold vaccines for dogs and horses to raise money for the country school.

We helped each other when some major repairs were needed. We all used the same vet and farrier and fuel oil supplier.

It was just the way people lived. Commonality was important.

It was not from hate radio. People lived this way before Fox and Limbaugh.

[calimary]

44. Sure glad I'M not the one to have to deal with this.

Most of me wonders why on earth ANYBODY would want to be president and have to handle problems like this!

[LakeArenal]

51. As a resident of the second poorest county

0f fewer than 25000 population, with major employers mega farms. Otherwise we all commute somewhere.

The gerrymandering is killing us.

My little County was blue as were the three around me. Only one is blue now. And it ain’t ours.