I hate this shit so much and I refuse to play the “city dwellers must always be humble and servile to their noble country lords” game that too many Americans still buy into.
I am very tired of the way the GOP can say the absolute vilest things imaginable about cities but doing anything other than singing the praises of rural communities is politics suicide.
Problem:
A lot of rural people think they can starve the cities into submission.
I hate to say this but, until we figure out how to synthesize everyone, we're kinda at their mercy.
Not really.
If that were the case (setting aside how little arable land is [anymore] used for human foodstuffs) farmers would have had the upper hand throughout history.
1: They did grow all the good.
2: They were the VAST majority of people.
3: Have never been at the top of the political heap.
The US Presidency is not a direct election; and was designed to make it so hoi polloi didn't make the decision about who was in charge.
The Senate; as designed, was the same way.
And if you think Trump's administration (and so the exercise of power) was run by Farmers, well I can't help you.
Remember Trump lost the popular vote, which was also the case for Bush's first term.
Which is before the question of "farmer" vs. Landholder comes into the various equations.
Yes, the past couple of hundred years have see the source of wealth shift, but actual farming has never meant power.
But even on that metric it's not true.
It's the suburban voters the "white flight" crowd who opposed bussing in the 70s, and continue to let racism shape whom they vote for (and what they see as the important aspects of party platform) who put the GOP where it is.
It's convenient, and comforting, to say "those people" but it's not some great gulf between Rural and Urban
It's Long Island and Anaheim, and Shaker Heights.
It's the folks who work in, but disdain the cosmopolitan aspects, of the "Big City".
It's the folks from Memphis, who hate New York/LA
No, it didn't.
Trump lost the vote. (how he, or anyone in the US would do if we had wholehearted turnout is a different question).
But even if it were the case; those aren't "farmers".
At most 2 million people are Farmers.
NYC has about 9 million people. Of those who voted in 2016, about 10 percent voted for Trump.
Which equals a significant portion of your "farmers".
If every farmer voted for Trump they still need a lot of other people.
"It was the small towns" is just like "Black Churches kill Prop 8", not true.
But Trump carried a significant number of large metropolitan areas of the US.
His standing among the Suburban voters is what sealed the deal.
www.forbes.com/sites/joelko...
