Randall Warner,a Lebanon, Kansas farmer, is concerned that this is the last generation of independent farmers, before the corporate farms take over everything. His son is about to enter college for a different career path. But it’s Mr.Randall’s views of contemporary politics that are most interesting.
Here’s how he feels about the two dominant political parties:
No political party seems to care much about the working man’s life, Mr. Warner feels. Stick a Republican and a Democrat in a sack, shake it up, pour it out, and the same rapacious thing crawls out. Creatures from a smoke-filled room.
That is hardly a revelation but stay with me.
Mr.Randall has voted Republican but is apparently less than satisfied.
Mr. Warner, a Pentecostal Christian, believes in miracles. He believes in speaking in tongues. He believes that abortion is taking a life and that gay marriage is an abomination. So he voted Republican.
Sounds like my kind of guy. He’s probably a lot of fun at parties. But wait a minute, what’s this?
What crumbs do the Democrats offer him? Two men in tuxedos on the steps of City Hall with a marriage license in hand? Handouts for those who won’t work? Mr.Warner says he could be peeled away from the conservatives if the liberals would talk to him about his values: “God. Family. Work,” he counts them on his fingertips and adds them up. “Heritage.”
I’m not aware that Democrats have acted against the pursuit of “heritage”. But can our tent be that big? Wouldn’t marriage for everyone create more families?
But read on.
Do something to stop the corporate takeover of farm country. Give his son a reason to stay and you could have his vote. “F.D.R. was the greatest president this country ever had,” Mr. Warner says. “He provided security for the farmer.”
So it’s okay to provide security for farmers but not for “handouts for those who won’t work”? Hmm.
Party on, Mr.Warner.
I suspect the heritage the farmer is speaking of is in the main preservation of the farming life, and the history of farming as a family enterprise, rather than a corporate flyspeck.
Virtually all of the so-called “farm aid” bills of recent vintage have provided corporate welfare for agribusiness, and precious little for family farmers. Those folks have been driven off the farms. I
Boran2,
You know when they talk about the Reagan Republicans? I know those people. I didn’t grow up with them, but my wife did in the imfamous Macomb County of suburban Detroit. These families were working class union. They were the backbone of our manifacturing industry. And they went for union-busting Ronald Reagan.
You can go drink with these folks and you probably aren’t going to like a lot of what you hear about race, about women, about gays, about people on welfare, about hippies, about foreigners. I know I haven’t. But I also know there they have been duped into voting for the GOP. The GOP has appealed to their racism and the financial insecurity, and their patriotism, and their religious feelings. And now they are coming back into the party. And the question is, will we pander to their demons, or pander to their financial security, the education of their children, the cleanliness of their hunting and fishing grounds, the strength of their unions?
We know the answer. The party is big enough for people we don’t agree with on social issues. It always was.