Tag: Virginia 5th Congressional District

Virginia Farmers: A Case to Vote Democratic

This past Saturday at the Fall Fiber Festival and Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials near Orange, Virginia, something remarkable happened.  During the afternoon sheep shearing demonstration, the 70 something farmer from Louisa, teared up when describing how he came to raising sheep and learning how to shear them.  He paused, wiping tears from his eyes, sheepishly apologized.  He had heart surgery last year, he said.  The crowd in the tent was silent, . . . .then a booming gruff, male voice, said, ‘No apology necessary.’  He paused, ‘in fact more people in this country need heart surgery.’  Applause erupted in the crowded tent.

I don’t know the politics of the farmer shearing the sheep, I don’t know the politics of the man comforting the farmer, I don’t know the politics of the crowd, and I certainly don’t know the politics of the sheep.  It was a moment of vulnerability, and the response was compassion, a common humanity.  

The man with the gruff voice called out the heartlessness of our partisan divide, the hate mongers, the primal chest pounding in some quarters.  The farmer then got a 50-pound sheep out of the pen, rassled him into position, and started to shear her with traditional shears.  Impressive for anyone, much less a 70-something farmer who recently had heart surgery.   

Farming is not for the faint of heart.  My wife’s side of the family were Kansas wheat farmers starting in the 1920s.  Her mom was one of 12 kids, the first one arriving at 16, the last at 46.  Her mom remembers the dust, the jack rabbits, and the wheat.  She left when she could.   They worked hard, took second jobs to make ends meet. Alas, the farm was sold in the 2003.

Let me snatch your mind back from the precipice of agrarian nostalgia and sentimentality and bring you back to reality.

Americans have long been fascinated by the imagery of a yeoman farmer clearing the fields and tilling the soil.  Hard work, independence, self-sufficiency were the supposed hallmarks of America’s rural farmers.  American Historian Richard Hofstadter called it the “agrarian myth,” arguing that the “more commercial” America became, “the more reason it found to cling in imagination to the noncommercial agrarian values.”  Adding, that “the American mind was raised upon a sentimental attachment to rural living….  The agrarian myth represents a kind of homage that Americans have paid to the fancied innocence of their origins.”  Farmers, Hofstadter wrote, are businessmen, first and foremost.

During several past national election seasons, “Farmers For Trump” road signs dotted Louisa County.  I always thought the imagery of the word “farmer” was meant to evoke the ‘agrarian myth’ of good honest living, hard work, self-sufficiency, independence and somehow attaching it to a man who has never had a callous from working with his hands, never used a shovel, much less an axe.  Who has probably spent more cash on manicures than many farmers have paid for their tractors.

Trump’s policies hurt farmers, to include those in Louisa County.  His tariff war, especially his war on Beijing, is bankrupting farmers across the country.

Here are the ground truths.  

Virginia’s top agricultural export countries in 2022 were China, Canada, Venezuela (go figure), and Taiwan in that order.  Virginia farmers did close to $1.5 billion business with China.  Canada came in at a distant second with $370 million.  Exports are crashing to these countries because of Trumps policies. 

China buys 60 percent of the global supply of soybeans.  This year, however, they have bought ZERO soybeans from American farmers.  So, 60 percent of the potential Virginia’s and Louisa County’s soybean sales, gone, evaporated, zilch, in the flick of a social media post.

Because of Trump’s tariff war with China, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil are now China’s biggest suppliers of soybeans. According to the latest figures I have, Virginia harvested 21.6 million bushels of soybeans in 2023 and that jumped in 2024 to 26.4 million bushels, most destined for export markets, primarily China. This years harvest is at risk of being unsold.

Louisa in 2022 had 8058 acres of soybeans under cultivation.  At 44 bushels per acre, that amounts to 354,552 bushels.  Assuming that the same number of approximate acres are being grown today, at today’s market value that come out to about $3.6 million.  A potential loss of $3.6 million to Louisa farmers if it is left unsold. Net cash income for Virginia and Louisa farmers is dropping because of Trump’s policies.

Crashing commodity prices and massive loss of export buyers is why Trump is promising a farmer bailout.   More free cash handouts to loyal farmers.  This worked during his first term when Trump bailed out farmers to the tune of billions of dollars because of failed tariff wars.  They voted for him again in droves. Why?  I don’t know. Makes no sense.

The White House recently proposed a $38 to $50 billion bailout for America’s farmers.  That’s about $16k per farmer.  I know it won’t be disbursed equally across the board, but it is a bailout for the row crop farmers who are losing export business because of Trump’s shortsighted and counterproductive policies.  

In a supreme act of irony, Trump wants to use tariff dollars – basically a consumption tax Americans like you and I pay — to fund the famer bailout.  Picking my pocket to give free cash to his farmer voting base.  Problem is, Trump can’t just reach into the Treasury and take the money, like a personal piggy bank.  He needs Congress to authorize the funds.

Farmers voted for Trump for a variety of reasons, one being they thought he is a good businessman.  Well, you got screwed…. again.  Time to get beyond the culture wars, hate mongering, and bullshit rhetoric of who is and who is not a real American.  

 According to government stats analyzed for a 2024 Politico article titled Did Trump or Biden deliver more for farmers?  The answer may surprise you,  “Biden has been better for farmers than Trump.  Net farming income has actually gone up since the Democrat entered the White House.  On average, net farm income has totaled $165 billion between 2021 and 2023, compared to $94 billion between 2017 and 2019.  Farm income reached a record high of nearly $189 billion in 2022.”

The 2022 Census of Agriculture Louisa County Profile, a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication, supports Politico’s analysis.  According to the profile, net cash farm income in Louisa County increased 2269 percent (yes, 2269) between 2017 and 2022.  The market value of products sold increased 143 percent over the same period.  Mostly, Louisa’s 452 farmers did well under Biden, but many threw away these Biden gains made after Trump’s first term mistakes, exacerbated by Trump’s thoroughly horrible mismanagement of the pandemic response, by helping to elect Trump to a second term.  100 days into his second term Trump later needs to bailout farmers once again. Enough, no?

I think I made a good economic case that voting for Trump is bad for business. Like sheep, he is herding farmers in order to fleece them. He isn’t much better in most measures regarding democracy and rule of law as well. Please vote for Abigail Spanberger for Governor this November, and in the mid-terms in 2026, help throw out 5th District representative John McGuire so Congress can do its constitutional duty to reign in Trump’s dash toward autocracy and bankrupting America’s farmers.  A vote for Democrats is a vote to return to prosperity.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

This past Sunday Democrats held an innovative multi-county town hall meeting in Goochland County, Virginia.  The invited guest, Rep. John McGuire (R), who represents Virginia’s 5th congressional district, did not accept the offer to speak to his beloved constituents.  In his place stood a cardboard avatar of McGuire, sporting a long, long, long, red tie, cartoon speech balloons emanated from his head. It reminded me of 18th century satirical political cartoons by William Hogarth.  

It was standing room only, a spirited, eclectic gathering.  Most were women, a good number of veterans, and a few former Republicans sprinkled among us. A microcosm of rural America: farmers, veterans, small business owners, local government employees, a few ministers, a good show of teachers, retirees, and some young’uns.   Some were in their Sunday best, either coming from or going to Church.  

McGuire’s replacement avatar and speaker was a civil rights attorney from Albemarle County.  After introductions he took questions and offered observations about McGuire and directly addressed Chuck Schumer’s about face on the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government.  I think his comments reflected the general mood of the crowd: anger and frustration at Schumer.

The overall tenor of the questions asked was one of concern, fury, and annoyance at Trump and Musk.   These concerns, anger, and frustration were not reserved only for Trump, but at national Democrat leadership in Congress as well:   Where is it?  What’s the opposition strategy?  If you did a word count of participants comments, I think “fight” would be at the top of the list.  The verb, not the noun.

My takeaways from the town hall are that folks are not only worried about Trump’s reckless assault on our Constitution but also troubled by the lack of a will to fight and take risks by national Democratic Party leadership.  Schumer’s about face and capitulation, being Exhibit A.   The lack of an articulated strategy to respond to the erosion of democracy being Exhibit B.  No mid-term election plan, Exhibit C. 

It seems folks feel rudderless in a tempest, watching the ship of state drift closer to the shoals, the captain nowhere to be found, lifeboats swept away.  I imagine leaders in local Democratic party organizations are themselves frustrated at the national leadership.  I see the fatigue in their eyes and hear it in their voices. They are leaning hard into the the headwinds trying to thwart our democracy. They deserve better from national leadership.

I get the sense that folks desperately want to participate in meaningful opposition but only have timeworn responses in their tool kit:  write letters; email or call your representatives; show up for town halls; boycott businesses that support Trump.  These measures seem futile, like using little adhesive band aids when one needs a trauma kit, a tourniquet to keep America’s democracy from bleeding out. 

When I found out a day or two after the town hall that Schumer cancelled his tour to hawk his new book because of security reasons, my first thought was, ‘book tour?” WTF? Really, Rome is burning, and he is going on a book tour.  What doesn’t he get?  It just highlights that the intellectual framework that guides his notion of being a Senator is dated, like orange shag carpets and lava lamps.  He clings to a nostalgic past to the detriment of our future. 

No need to hit the panic button, but time is not on our side, given Trump’ frantic pace to undo democracy. The mid-terms are too far off to make any real, immediate course corrections.  The national Democratic Party leadership needs to get off its’ ass.  Trust us.  We will do the right thing if given the chance, but it requires tough national leadership that is willing to take risks, carry the flag at the front.  At my infantry basic course our motto was:  “Lead, follow, or Get out of the Way.”  Mr. Schumer, get out of the way.     

Lifeboat:  A recap of John McGuire’s call-in Town Hall

Representative John McGuire of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District held a call-in town hall meeting recently.  I don’t know how many folks attended the town hall, but I do know that when folks were selected to ask McGuire questions the majority queried him about Medicaid cuts and DOGE. Funny, no talks of eggs.

McGuire started the town hall by asking listeners to participate in a poll.  The first question was, “do they want to root out waste, fraud, and abuse? “ That’s like asking Medieval folks if they want to root out Black Death, the plague.  Of course they did.  It’s the methodology that they had quibbles over.  In 17th century England, if a household member got plague, the whole household was locked inside the house for 30 or 45 days, a guard posted outside.  That quarantine was extended as other household members sickened and died.  Normally, everyone perished.  Sounds a bit like DOGE’s methodology regarding USAID and lifesaving anti-viral drugs for millions of Africans. 

But back to the town hall.  The first question McGuire was asked sounded the alarm about the proposed $880 billion dollar cut to government agencies overseen by the energy and commerce committee.  This would entail massive cuts to Medicaid, the caller thought.  McGuire’s response was to happily, almost joyfully, point out that Medicaid was not mentioned once in the proposed budget blueprint.  Duh!  The New York Times reported that if the committee cut all other non-safety net programs under their oversight, they would still have to eliminate an additional $600 billion in funding.  That means Medicaid would be hit….hard.

Another caller, a preacher, pointed out that 24 percent of his district receives Medicaid.   I asked myself, did it ever dawn on McGuire to ask himself, “why do so many folks who work full-time jobs in my district can’t afford medical insurance or care? “ Piss poor wages dude!  Nationwide, over 64 percent of Medicaid recipients work.  In Louisa County, 17 percent receive Medicaid, and this is in a county where unemployment is just a smidge over 2 percent. According to Virginia law, if Medicaid expansion funding from the Federal government drops to a certain level, the program is abandoned.  Yes, abandoned.  That would mean 600,000 Virginians would lose access to health care, many of whom are kids.  Later callers, it was clear, weren’t buying McGuire’s Trumpian responses.

The same went for DOGE.  Near universal condemnation of DOGE’s chainsaw approach, many pointing out its cold-heartedness.  One caller, from the Charlottesville area, said folks in her organization – which she specified — were worried about the haphazard cuts and potential cuts to come.  In perhaps a Freudian slip, McGuire spoke of her position and organization in the past tense.   Which he corrected quickly.  I am sure that that slip was noted by listeners.

During overwhelmingly negative comments and questions regarding DOGE’s incompetence and draconian Medicaid cuts, McGuire’s aid interjected and offered an email question.  The email question was quite flattering of McGuire.  Really, were not dumb!

Overall, McGuire got an earful, but I don’t think he listened.  Too often he used rehearsed and prepared talking points (you heard papers shuffling) instead of genuine concern.  Given the tenure of other town halls I seen or heard about, I was surprised at how calm the questioners were.  Very civil, very polite, but direct as well.  McGuire was civil himself, but too often resorting to the same phrase, saying, ‘I still love you even though we disagree.’  

I think McGuire forgot a cardinal rule in politics:  He forgot who he works for.  We expect our politicians to omit and lie and obfuscate, but we don’t expect them to work against our interests.  It was obvious he works for Trump and not us.  Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 said it best I think:  “In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

You may be wondering why Lifeboat” is in the title of this essay. I remember as a kid watching a black and white war movie telling the story of the survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship.  The drama takes place in the overcrowded lifeboat: too many people, not enough space, too little food or water.  As time passed people died or were killed.  I realized later with age and little bit of wisdom, that the lifeboat was a parable about class and society.  The passengers represented a spectrum of society:  a wealthy socialite, working class ship hands, upper class passengers, the young and elderly, a vulnerable woman with a dead child, an enemy portrayed by the German U-boat captain. Conflicts ensued as resources, and hope, dwindled.  Winners and losers.  Everyone dead or morally tainted.

That’s the paradigm that sticks in my mind when I think of politics in America today.  America the Lifeboat.  Billions, tens of billions in cuts to Medicaid and other safety-net programs — mostly to working class folks – to pay for $4 trillion in tax cuts, the bulk of the dollars going to the wealthiest Americans.   I think that’s not the ‘golden age’ most folks who voted for Trump envisioned or want.