A Postindustrial columnist, farmer, and candidate for Michigan’s State Senate writes about observing the first cracks in the agricultural wall supporting President Trump.
His mock pledge of allegiance did not sit well with many farmers and rural voters.
God and country are two of Rural America’s core values. Neither should ever be about a particular person or president. We say the pledge before every meeting I attend. And people take the pledge seriously.
It’s no mystery that President Trump is, more often than not, focused on himself. But this time was different.
He said the quiet part out loud.
Is this enough to change someone’s vote? I don’t know. What it does is put a damper on excitement. Which, in turn, can impact turnout. Or result in a certain level of revenge votes, even though the president is not on the ballot.
A caution to Democrats
The 2028 election is the important one. Democrats’ risk is that they do win – either the House or (less likely) the Senate – but then get nothing accomplished over the next two years and waste time and energy impeaching and prosecuting.
The almost universal view I hear is that we are currently at war on so many fronts. We have Israel v. Hamas, Ukraine v. Russia, the U.S. v. Iran, and we are building up for China v. Taiwan. We supply the weapons for all of those conflicts. For years, the U.S. has been woefully under-supplied in ammunition, and we are struggling to catch up.
We need tens of thousands of Patriot missiles. Before the war with Iran, the U.S. had a stockpile of 2,330 in its own inventory. Ukraine alone would like to go through 300 per month. The U.S. has gone through 1,500 in the war with Iran. We produce 50 per month.
Democrats need to start reassuring voters that they will not slow down our resupply of the ammunition we need. It doesn’t matter to voters whose fault this is, or whether or not we should be in any of these conflicts. We have to accept the situation as it exists.
Unwinding everything President Trump has done is not an answer.
If Democrats thwart our resupply of ammunition over the next two years, 2028 will be a bloodbath. While Rural might not turn out in force in 2026, they certainly will in 2028. And the Rural that matters is almost 30% of the Electoral College vote.
Democrats need to start reassuring voters now.
