Are America's farmers moving to the right too...

[Some Moran]

In the recent Saskatchewan election, The leftist New Democratic Party won 30 seats, while the right-of-Alliance Saskatchewan Party won 28. (Of a total of 58, btw...So it was damn close) The centrist Liberals won 0.

The NDP won by clobbering the SK party in urban areas (winning 26 of 30 seats), while the rural areas voted overwhelmingly SK (with 24 of 28 rural seats going to the SK party)...

Is this happening in the U.S. too? (I see it a bit in Minnesota...The big urban-rural liberal coalition kicking conservative suburbia's ass is no longer as big a reality as it once was...)

Western Canada's farmers were fathers of progressive and socialist movements years ago...

[stevedeshazer]

1. America's farmers ARE the Radical Right

The family farm is nearly gone altogether. Agribusiness is megafarms, all federally subsidized with cheap water and electricity.

It's true that decades ago, there was a progressive movement in many farming areas, and there are remaining vestiges in places like Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas. But by and large, big business has taken over the family farm.

Instead of raising potatoes like their parents and grandparents did, farm kids today are more likely to serve them up at McDonalds.

[JailBush]

2. I'm from a redneck area in South Dakota...

In fact, I thought the entire state was rednecked.

I remember people griping about all the big city "welfare queens," but a local joke asked why farmers planted trees. Punch line: So they could sit in the shade while awaiting their government check.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. The power of the media.

Rednecks don't realize that they're welfare recepients because the right-wing media never told them.

[catmandu57]

4. Farmers are lemmings

They follow the lead of the bigger farmers, I live in farm country and have watched them do it for years. The guys with the bigger farms who have survived the farm wreakage tend to be big time reptiles, they set the lead and the other guys say if it's good enough for joe then it must be good.
So they follow the leader vote reptilian, and smile when they get the knife twisted in their back.

[lapislzi]

5. America has farmers?

America has farming syndicates, farm corporations, ADL and Monsanto. There are few "farmers" in the old sense of the word in America. And I doubt whether we need to inquire as to the political affiliations of ADL and Monsanto.

[markus]

6. That's not happening in North Dakota

If you're up that way, I'd love to see some links to their approach. North Dakota seems to have left its Progressive tradition behind.

The state bank is just a cash cow being milked by the the GOP super majority to keep taxes low and run a stealth deficit. Farmers and teachers and lots of low-wage people vote conservatively in direct oppostion to their own economic self-interest.

It makes me crazy. We need to figure out a way to light a prarie fire here at home. (I'm hoping people in outstate MN are pissed as hell at the new governor, and that some of that will bleed over into the Red River Valley region).

[BiggJawn]

7. MOVING to the Right???? Too late, they're already there.

I can't recall ever in my life meeting a Democrat farmer. They have always been conservative, yet firmly attached to the USDA/County Extension Service tit. But don't EVEN dare to suggest that they're receiving "welfare", unless you like being hit with shovels or threatened with shotguns....

[Upfront]

8. Michigan Farmers

Have always been very right wing. They are more so today then ever. Hate taxes and think welfare queens are the fault of all our problems. You can not educate them as they are bull headed as can be. I was raised in a farming area and still live close. In my 62 years I have never met a farmer who was a Democrat. Most are good people but forget there vote.

[jeter]

9. farmers are traditionally conservative

Always have been. In CA, they are the most consistantly conservative voters.

[SpiralHawk]

10. A sustainable alternative for farmers and families

The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement continues to grow, thanks to Americans who want to know where their food was raised or grown, and how it was done -- and also to preserve open farm land int heir communities.

CSA farms started with two in America in 1985. By now there are about 1,500 such farms across the nation.

more...
http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms-1.html

[sybylla]

11. My farming inlaws are staunchly Democratic

When they moved from upstate New York to central Wisconsin in the 60's, they were shocked by all the repuke farmers who surrounded them. They couldn't understand how a farmer could be repuke. In Wisconsin, I think a lot of it is voting tradition that began in the early 1900's. Farmers are naturally fiscally conservative and even though Roosevelt gave them a helping hand when they needed it in the 30's and 40's, most still continue to vote repuke like their fathers and grandfathers did. Today, if you ask a farmer what is important to them, 90% of it is part and parcel of the Dem platform. But they continue to get hooked by the "values" and tax-cut lies coming from the right.

I know several farmers in Central and Southern Wisconsin who are Dems, so it isn't an overwhelming majority. But by and large they appear to be repuke here.

[Ficus]

12. Paul Wellstone proved

that it's possible to organize farmers when you show them it's in their interest.

Here in Iowa, however, I think our state is going to be one big freaking corporate hog lot once you get outside Des Moines.

But hey, my family used to raise cattle (before we lost it all) and we've always had a long tradition going back generations of progressive values, which thankfully, I've had passed down to me.

This is how I see it in Iowa:
Big corp farms = republicans through and through
Small farmers = mostly independents (economic liberal and socially conservative)