The Frauding of America's Farmers Trump's biggest supporters are his biggest victims.

[applegrove]

The Frauding of America’s Farmers

Trump’s biggest supporters are his biggest victims.

By Paul Krugman at the NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/opinion/trump-trade-farmers.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

"SNIP......


And here’s the thing: It shouldn’t have been hard to predict that Trumponomics would be bad for farmers. Trump’s desire for a trade war was out in the open from the beginning; protectionism is right up there with racism and anti-environmentalism as one of his core values. And a trade war was bound to hurt farm exports. Did anyone really imagine that China, an economic superpower with its own fierce nationalism, wouldn’t retaliate against U.S. tariffs?

So what were farmers thinking? My guess is that they let the will to believe override their judgment. Trump seemed like their kind of guy. He certainly seemed to share their dislike for urban elites who, they imagined, looked down on people like them. So they convinced themselves that he knew what he was doing, that he would win his trade war and that they would be among the victors sharing the spoils.

Even now many farmers seem to believe that the pain will end any day now, that Trump will soon announce a deal that restores all the old markets and more.

In short, farmers’ support for Trump should be seen as a form of affinity fraud, in which people fall for a con man whom they imagine to be someone like them.


......SNIP"

[czarjak]

1. Reap, sow...

You know, rubes.

[htuttle]

2. "share their dislike for urban elites"

Have they seen his houses? In New Fucking York City?

How can they not see him as the ultimate embodiment of a fast talking, cheating, city slicker? He's fucking proud of it! He brags about cheating people!

Is it just racism? Are America's farmers all that racist? Why would they hate Mexicans when they need them to harvest their crops?

I just don't get it -- and I grew up in farm country. Left it almost 40 years ago, but did it change that much?

[walkingman]

3. They'll get what's coming to them in the END!

[Corgigal]

4. They voted against the land and planet earth.

They vote for white business, but they make their living from the land.

I guess they should have spent more time in retrospect.

[world wide wally]

5. This may be a typical Trump ploy to create a crisis then wait for an opportune time to

step in and be the hero who solves it.
In other words, he calls off his trade wars sometime next year and then calls it a victory. Just long enough before the election to get some traction from "solving" the problem.

[applegrove]

6. I worry he gets help from ceos too who suddenly increase wages at an opportune time.

I'm not against wages going up but they should have if Obama had been allowed an infrastructure program. GOP did not want keynesian spending for obama. That might have shortened the great recession that hit workers and their wages while the stock market rebounded.

[ooky]

8. That is the scenario I have been expecting. Right before the election, so that there is

not enough time for his myth to be dispelled. Unfortunately he may tank the economy first.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Many of these Farmers

were sold a bill of Bullshit Goods and now the Reality is setting in. Wonder how many will break even this year. And for those who were promised a Vote Buyers reward,well,that sounds like it is not happening. Only the Mega Operators seemed to get their Voting money and screw the little Guy's.

BTW,there are tons of Democratic Farmer Voters. My guess is,they felt Slighted and either stayed home or voted for some third Party.

[Hoyt]

9. He'll pay them off with subsidies and racism. They'll vote for him.

[larwdem]

10. the saying is

(no farms no food) but the fucking farmers better learn. (no city's no farmers) who do they think is buying
their products?