Rural America becoming irrelevant?

[Greenbeard]

Back when the first presidential election was held in 1788, the United States was an overwhelming 95 percent rural. That number today is around 19 percent, with rural voters constituting an even smaller percentage of the electorate in the 2012 election than that.

This week you've got the Secretary of Agriculture warning that rural areas are becoming less relevant, pointing to the failure of Congress to pass a farm bill as evidence of rural America's waning political power.

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.

"It's time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It's time for a different thought process here, in my view."

"Why is it that we don't have a farm bill?" Vilsack said. "It isn't just the differences of policy. It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it."

For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states.

The Agriculture Department says about 50 percent of rural counties have lost population in the past four years and poverty rates are higher there than in metropolitan areas, despite the booming agricultural economy.

Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that rural voters accounted for just 14 percent of the turnout in last month's election, with 61 percent of them supporting Republican Mitt Romney and 37 percent backing President Barack Obama. Two-thirds of those rural voters said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

It's an interesting trend to think about, given how rural areas shaped American politics for so long. From Jefferson's yeoman farmer to Lincoln and the GOP's Homestead Act (even as industrialization was winning the war for them) to Bryan's prairie populism. Even after the country became majority urban in the early 20th century, rural America continued to be politically important--think of the importance of farmers to the New Deal coalition.

But rural American has continued to shrink. And now we've even got a genuine "urban" President (wink, wink). Times change.

 

[BreezeWood]

Rural America becoming irrelevant?


oddly the Red states they are mostly represented in are Republican and should have fared well with the 10 year Census Redistricting -

somehow the Farmer was left out of the Republican(ism) Party.

 

[KissMy]

Back when the first presidential election was held in 1788, the United States was an overwhelming 95 percent rural. That number today is around 19 percent, with rural voters constituting an even smaller percentage of the electorate in the 2012 election than that.

This week you've got the Secretary of Agriculture warning that rural areas are becoming less relevant, pointing to the failure of Congress to pass a farm bill as evidence of rural America's waning political power.

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.

"It's time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It's time for a different thought process here, in my view."

"Why is it that we don't have a farm bill?" Vilsack said. "It isn't just the differences of policy. It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it."

For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states.

The Agriculture Department says about 50 percent of rural counties have lost population in the past four years and poverty rates are higher there than in metropolitan areas, despite the booming agricultural economy.

Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that rural voters accounted for just 14 percent of the turnout in last month's election, with 61 percent of them supporting Republican Mitt Romney and 37 percent backing President Barack Obama. Two-thirds of those rural voters said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

It's an interesting trend to think about, given how rural areas shaped American politics for so long. From Jefferson's yeoman farmer to Lincoln and the GOP's Homestead Act (even as industrialization was winning the war for them) to Bryan's prairie populism. Even after the country became majority urban in the early 20th century, rural America continued to be politically important--think of the importance of farmers to the New Deal coalition.

But rural American has continued to shrink. And now we've even got a genuine "urban" President (wink, wink). Times change.

The main reason that farm bill does not pass is because farmers do not want the crop insurance subsidy. They either want direct payments or no subsidy at all like we have had for the past 4 years. We have not had any subsidities in the past 5 years & do not need subsidy because China is keeping grain prices high enough to pay the bills. Farmers are proud & hate subsidies unless they are necessary. They prefer to hold their head up rather than be greedy & bow down to subsidies. Just go out to a rural area & ask them.

Also less labor is needed & small farms have grown into huge operations. My 1,000 acres is now considered a small farm. There are a bunch of survivalist who have moved to the rural areas. They think they are off the grid & can survive an apocalypse. The stupid fools are more on the grid out there than they were in the city. They now drive long distances on their daily commutes & running to the store. Plus Rural natural gas, water, electricity, internet, gasoline & diesel is all more expensive out there. Gravel roads destroy tires & automobiles. I laugh my ass off every time I see those retards. Hell even I live in the city. I only stay out on the farm for 2 weeks to plant & 2 weeks to harvest. It's expensive to live in the country unless you want to hunt for food, garden, have no utilities & not drive to work or stores.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Back when the first presidential election was held in 1788, the United States was an overwhelming 95 percent rural. That number today is around 19 percent, with rural voters constituting an even smaller percentage of the electorate in the 2012 election than that.

This week you've got the Secretary of Agriculture warning that rural areas are becoming less relevant, pointing to the failure of Congress to pass a farm bill as evidence of rural America's waning political power.

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.

"It's time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It's time for a different thought process here, in my view."

"Why is it that we don't have a farm bill?" Vilsack said. "It isn't just the differences of policy. It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it."

For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states.

The Agriculture Department says about 50 percent of rural counties have lost population in the past four years and poverty rates are higher there than in metropolitan areas, despite the booming agricultural economy.

Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that rural voters accounted for just 14 percent of the turnout in last month's election, with 61 percent of them supporting Republican Mitt Romney and 37 percent backing President Barack Obama. Two-thirds of those rural voters said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

It's an interesting trend to think about, given how rural areas shaped American politics for so long. From Jefferson's yeoman farmer to Lincoln and the GOP's Homestead Act (even as industrialization was winning the war for them) to Bryan's prairie populism. Even after the country became majority urban in the early 20th century, rural America continued to be politically important--think of the importance of farmers to the New Deal coalition.

But rural American has continued to shrink. And now we've even got a genuine "urban" President (wink, wink). Times change.

Boss Tweed knows why you're winking

 

[9thIDdoc]

In our culture buying power and political power are closely entertwined.
I suspect that one day city slickers will wake up and find that bread is $50/loaf, water $20/gal., and that electricity has become affordable by only the wealthy.

Urbanites may need to be reminded that they are dependent on rual areas if they want to continue to eat and drink.

 

[hazlnut]

In our culture buying power and political power are closely entertwined.
I suspect that one day city slickers will wake up and find that bread is $50/loaf, water $20/gal., and that electricity has become affordable by only the wealthy.

Urbanites may need to be reminded that they are dependent on rual areas if they want to continue to eat and drink.

You're clueless about supply and demand.

If no one buys your corn, you starve.

If you natural gas is cheaper than coal, then coal miners better learn a new trade, or go on welfare.

Get it?

If you don't give us what we want at the price we want to pay, we'll go elsewhere and you'll die.

 

[KissMy]

In our culture buying power and political power are closely entertwined.
I suspect that one day city slickers will wake up and find that bread is $50/loaf, water $20/gal., and that electricity has become affordable by only the wealthy.

Urbanites may need to be reminded that they are dependent on rual areas if they want to continue to eat and drink.

You're clueless about supply and demand.

If no one buys your corn, you starve.

If you natural gas is cheaper than coal, then coal miners better learn a new trade, or go on welfare.

Get it?

If you don't give us what we want at the price we want to pay, we'll go elsewhere and you'll die.

Subsidies initially drove down the production cost & the price of corn. Now those low prices drove farmers out of business in other countries causing foreign demand for US corn to increase. So the subsidy was no longer holding down the price of corn.

Ethanol has the same effect. It keeps prices stable & corn production up. The by-product of ethanol is better animal feed than the corn was. Animals gain weight 30% faster on 15% less feed on ethanol DDG feed. Livestock producers can no longer compete unless they feed DDG's. This also flooded China with more corn & DDG feed wiping out even more of their farmers thus increasing their demand for US food.

The weaker US dollar made this greater demand possible.

China Starts Probe of US Feed Dumping
.

 

[9thIDdoc]

"You're clueless about supply and demand."

I'd say the same about you. How how long do you think cities would survive without fresh supplies of food and water? A few days? A week maybe?

If no one buys your corn, you starve.

If no one buys my corn I won't starve because I can eat it myself and save all the trouble of sending it off to a bunch of ungreatful assholes. You can try planting corn on concrete and assphalt and see how that works for you

"If you natural gas is cheaper than coal, then coal miners better learn a new trade, or go on welfare.
Get it?If you don't give us what we want at the price we want to pay, we'll go elsewhere and you'll die. "

What I "get" is that cities do not produce the food and water they have to have nor can they produce the raw materials required by their industries and powerplants. They are dependent on rural areas; not the other way around.

 

[Dot Com]

industrial farming has decimated the family farmers thus reducing their #'s/clout

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Yeah, big Democrat controlled cities major production is dependency and Obama voters; do they really need food, gas or oil?

 

[Warrior102]

Hysterical -
Liberals bloviating on farming / labor
As if they've ever fucking worked a day in their lives
What next? Your expert views/analysis on the military?
Put your mouth back onto a dick and STFYU Libberhoids

 

[WillowTree]

In our culture buying power and political power are closely entertwined.
I suspect that one day city slickers will wake up and find that bread is $50/loaf, water $20/gal., and that electricity has become affordable by only the wealthy.

Urbanites may need to be reminded that they are dependent on rual areas if they want to continue to eat and drink.

You're clueless about supply and demand.

If no one buys your corn, you starve.
If you natural gas is cheaper than coal, then coal miners better learn a new trade, or go on welfare.

Get it?

If you don't give us what we want at the price we want to pay, we'll go elsewhere and you'll die.

Not if you eat the corn dumbass.

 

[hazlnut]

"You're clueless about supply and demand."

I'd say the same about you. How how long do you think cities would survive without fresh supplies of food and water? A few days? A week maybe?

We control the water and can get all the food we need from California or Mexico.

Fail.

You forget we just keep you hicks around because we feel sorry for you.

If no one buys your corn, you starve.

If no one buys my corn I won't starve because I can eat it myself and save all the trouble of sending it off to a bunch of ungreatful assholes. You can try planting corn on concrete and assphalt and see how that works for you

The bulk of your crop goes bad. (because you can't eat it all and keep it fresh)

Then you owe the bank a debt.

WE OWN YOU. YOU LOSE YOUR FARM. WELL PLAYED!!

FAIL ##2

Do I need to go on....

 

[Warrior102]

Do I need to go on....

Does neg rep hurt your frail gay ass?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Rural America becoming irrelevant?


oddly the Red states they are mostly represented in are Republican and should have fared well with the 10 year Census Redistricting -

somehow the Farmer was left out of the Republican(ism) Party.

But those population increases are largely from migrations from the North, the Northeast and industrial Midwest, to be precise. These voters tend to be more progressive –whether republican or democratic – and are likely moving from one urban area to another.

Florida, of course, is the most striking example of this, twice now a blue state in the last two presidential elections.

 

[KissMy]

"You're clueless about supply and demand."

I'd say the same about you. How how long do you think cities would survive without fresh supplies of food and water? A few days? A week maybe?

We control the water and can get all the food we need from California or Mexico.

Fail.

You forget we just keep you hicks around because we feel sorry for you.

If no one buys your corn, you starve.

If no one buys my corn I won't starve because I can eat it myself and save all the trouble of sending it off to a bunch of ungreatful assholes. You can try planting corn on concrete and assphalt and see how that works for you

The bulk of your crop goes bad. (because you can't eat it all and keep it fresh)

Then you owe the bank a debt.

WE OWN YOU. YOU LOSE YOUR FARM. WELL PLAYED!!

FAIL ##2

Do I need to go on....

Most farmers have no debt. They have been buying land with cash. It is not anything like it was during the depression, in the late 70's or the subprime housing market. Farm land went up as commercial & housing plumited this time. It was not banks lending to farmers. It was farmers using their cash to buy land & expand their operation.

Farmers will not go bankrupt. You don't own farmers. They don't have to make payments. They own you. They can store their grain for a few years & not plant their fields. You will be screwed when that happens.

Even if some farmers went bankrupt, the field still would not get planted & you still starve.

 

[Old Rocks]

Suicide Rate for American Farmers Double the Average of Other Occupations | Redeeming the Dirt

In 1890, researchers for the U.S. Census Bureau ranked professions that had the highest rate of suicide. Tailors, accountants, bookkeepers, clerks, and copyists suffered the most. At the bottom of the list was a career least likely to lead to self-harm: farming. Today, the suicide rate for American farmers is double the national average for everyone else.”



Double the national average suicide rate! Many people talk about the dangers of farming because of heavy machinery and chemicals, but rarely do you hear that farming can be dangerous for your emotional health. Why is this so? What changed to make farmers go from the least likely to even consider suicide, to one of the highest? The article goes on to explain:



“Several recent studies, including a report by the USDA, have attempted to understand why many farmers are struggling emotionally. Some farmers who are asked about the high rates of suicide speak of a sense of loss: the loss of community, the loss of income, and not least, the loss of independence. Many rural farmers say that they are increasingly paid less for more work, and they owe more today for their seeds, fertilizers, equipment, and pesticides. They work one or two jobs outside of their farm in order to stay on their land. They feel ashamed that they cannot be self-sufficient in the way they believe their ancestors were. Instead of growing many crops, they plant hundreds of acres of corn or soybeans. They spray their fields with fertilizer and work off the farm while the corn grows. At the end of the season, the crop is harvested with a large combine.

 

[9thIDdoc]

"We control the water and can get all the food we need from California or Mexico."

Food from the rual areas (that you claim you don't need) of Ca. and Mex. and your water sources are located there as well. You also might want remember that your water lines, power lines, railroads, and highways all cross large expanses of rual America.

"Then you owe the bank a debt."

What debt? What bank? A short period of "all the traffic will bear" food and water prices would pay off most any debt imaginable. Bankers that have died of thirst, starvation, or riots aren't in a good position to collect on debts in any case.
Big cities need us to baby them. We don't need them.

 

[BreezeWood]

Rural America becoming irrelevant?


oddly the Red states they are mostly represented in are Republican and should have fared well with the 10 year Census Redistricting -

somehow the Farmer was left out of the Republican(ism) Party.

But those population increases are largely from migrations from the North, the Northeast and industrial Midwest, to be precise. These voters tend to be more progressive –whether republican or democratic – and are likely moving from one urban area to another.

Florida, of course, is the most striking example of this, twice now a blue state in the last two presidential elections.

well, it still seems that it was the Republican party that made the districts Urban Republican at the expense of Rural Republican - leaving the farmers to fend for themselves.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Has someone already mentioned that dingy Paul Ryan said they lost because of "rural America"?

Weirdest excuse I've ever heard for not getting enough votes. Especially since most of America lives in the cities AND Ryan lost his own state, county and town, as did Mittens.