The political lesson of stories like this isn't "Too bad, sucker, leopards ate your face." This is ammunition for a broader argument: Republicans and Trump suckered rural folk, and will keep doing it until those voters do something about it. Which they can. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio... - ThreadSky

paulwaldman.bsky.social • 6 days ago

The political lesson of stories like this isn't "Too bad, sucker, leopards ate your face." This is ammunition for a broader argument: Republicans and Trump suckered rural folk, and will keep doing it until those voters do something about it. Which they can.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2025/trump-farmers-grants-freeze-usda-migrants

Comments

gretagroots.bsky.social•5 days ago

Biden/Harris wanted to bring them broadband, Trump wants to deport all their laborers. They chose the latter

urlcannonbear.bsky.social•5 days ago

Still, hatred of Democrats- and minorities- from rural folk is a powerful, ingrained thing..

centristsisyphus.bsky.social•5 days ago

Schadenfreude isn’t the political lesson, but it’s the unavoidable human reaction. These people’s inability to think two steps ahead helped bring us to this point. The electorate failed, and they’re part of the reason.

klynnc.bsky.social•6 days ago

Get what you are saying, but they NEVER listen or seem to learn a damn thing. Constantly voting against their own interests. It has gotten so old.

qfalconer.bsky.social•5 days ago

When is the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won the majority of the White vote?

1964, need I say more?

saintbridge.bsky.social•5 days ago

I am not holding my breath. If they were degenerate enough to vote for him knowing what they knew about him (rapist, racist and stole top secret docs, etc), they're probably too irreparably dumb to ever understand.

brendanamartin.bsky.social•6 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/brendanamartin.bsky.social/post/3ls4raubhos2r

deepvard.bsky.social•6 days ago

WhiteEuropeanAmeriKKKanMaleSupremacy is an intoxicating addiction to its undeserved materialism

cmurf.com•6 days ago

Have you asked them? They're not stupid in the casual sense, but deliberately removed themselves from rationality. There's no reasoning. And Trump has taught them to never take responsibility, always blame someone else.

I think you underestimate the allure and deception of white supremacy.

cmurf.com•6 days ago

Trump has taught them it is appropriate to reject the consequences of losing an election. And to engage in violence and insurrection.

Lincoln told us this is untenable.

geomanks.bsky.social•5 days ago

In understanding this situation, we must include the media as a main factor too. I see the worldviews of family and in-laws who are on a steady diet of Fox, Newsmax, Just the News (John Solomon), Epoch Times, and the like. They live in alternate realities because of their media consumption.

neqone.bsky.social•4 days ago

I just ask that they say, "We got suckered and we want to fight these mother fuckers until they are gone." I'm on board for true heart felt mea culpas. I have zero interest in giving graces for, "Fix my particular problem and I'll keep voting MAGA because fuck everybody else still."

jmgee.bsky.social•6 days ago

The truth is, these people lied to themselves. That is an impossible political pitch. But "you good people were lied to" is a very potent one.

dougb1.bsky.social•6 days ago

Well if Democrats don’t stand up for what’s right, don’t continually learn to frame and promote and fight for issues in terms of what’s right - and not what’s politically expedient for focus group tested or the lazy consultant class, then they will continue to lose with these voters.

dougb1.bsky.social•6 days ago

And Democrats, the left, and progressives need to develop, fund, and promote a social media and communications infrastructure to carry their message.

texaslopez.bsky.social•6 days ago

The honest truth is that Democrats will only ever make marginal gains with rural voters and how much time and money they should waste on an older rural population set in their ways versus targeting growing metro areas with a continual churn of new voters

texaslopez.bsky.social•6 days ago

Warren had one of the most compelling populist and anti trust policy platforms targeted at rural voters when it came to the consolidation of ag processors, right to repair, and some stuff about loan financing, but all rural voters see is a New England academic who is pro choice and pro gun control.

texaslopez.bsky.social•6 days ago

Case in point. Too many conservative voters care more about how you perform in public than what you actually accomplish in office.

https://bsky.app/profile/sharonk.bsky.social/post/3ls4oqt2fb222

themaltesemama.bsky.social•5 days ago

true but this isn’t just some random conservative voter that axios found. this is someone involved in the young republicans on campus who was also arrested for dealing drugs. who wrote that long thread about how young men are disaffected because they want to cheat their way to success rather than

themaltesemama.bsky.social•5 days ago

put in the hard work? i think i pinned it and will dig it up….

texaslopez.bsky.social•5 days ago

Sounds about right tbh

thewettanktops.bsky.social•5 days ago

These people think the President is a mascot and nothings gonna change til they figure out it’s a real fucking job

mcjambro.bsky.social•6 days ago

They won't unfortunately. He may lose some support but the crowd that has supported so far will keep doing it.

crankebastard.bsky.social•6 days ago

Do you think people will finally see that Republicans have been tricking them into voting against their own self interests all this time?

kinlika.bsky.social•6 days ago

Almost certainly the farmer voted for trump
In 2015
In 2020
And in 2024

Absolute proven - You cannot educate Pork...

saffermaster.bsky.social•6 days ago

It goes way back - see “What’s the Matter With Kansas” by Matt Taibi before he was a dick

kinlika.bsky.social•5 days ago

Britain has two main parties
Conservatives,or Tories,considered the party for the upper classes,the bosses,the employers
Labour,the party of the Workers
British farmers always vote Tory,always do better under a Labour Government
To be fair Blair was a Champagne Socialist so the ethos has changed now

thesecretfarmer.bsky.social•4 days ago

Some of us farmers vote for neither of those 2!

kinlika.bsky.social•3 days ago

Quite likely
Lots didn't
But equally you didn't do enough to prevent trumps election,
By the same token ,Brexit occurred- enabled by an apathy, an unswerving belief that the Status Quo ,good for decades, would once again prevail...
Pro EU votes always weighed,not counted...

That went wrong too...

leegross.bsky.social•5 days ago

By Thomas Frank. Agree with your MT comment though!

saffermaster.bsky.social•2 days ago

Oh right - I don’t know why I think Taibi wrote it
Brain fart

wowbaggert.bsky.social•5 days ago

I'm open to selling them on "you were lied to" if they're open to hearing it.

daughterofwitches.bsky.social•6 days ago

You are looking at several generations of brain drain from rural America.
The ones that can change their minds/are willing to change their behavior left the farm as soon as they could because the writing was on the wall.
The ones that stayed put their heads in the sand/will die ignoring the truth.

spyd34.bsky.social•5 days ago

And that sounds like it might be an accurate description of the whole country now.

santacruzmag.bsky.social•5 days ago

These highly subsidized farmers have been suckered for decades. However, those suckers are convinced Democrats are demonic and Republicans are "patriotic, fiscal conservatives". They don't look for accurate news, just BS that fulfills their established, often racist, views and the beat goes on.

insavga.bsky.social•6 days ago

"Can" those voters do something about it? Of course! Will they? No. They cherish too much the bigotries that Trump gives them permission to indulge. So, yeah. Fuck 'em! Let leopards eat their faces until they learn to cherish those bigotries less than their own well-being.

buildbluewall.bsky.social•5 days ago

Men in women's sports!

insavga.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes, I have thoughts and feelings about that
https://bsky.app/profile/insavga.bsky.social/post/3ls4ifgmx6s22

buildbluewall.bsky.social•5 days ago

MAGA voters are very scared of things

anaideia.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's this phenomenon where they're voting for pain, but for *other* people. (My CAPS)

"....he was also a Republican who, like nearly every farmer he knew, thought the country wasted too much money.

'But not all of it,' JJ said, because he rejected the notion that HIS grant was a waste."

ridder.bsky.social•5 days ago

I wonder if Democrats can find the courage to reach out to these people?

So far the odds don't look good.

matthewsp.bsky.social•6 days ago

Okay, but what if they did not, in fact, get suckered? In 2016 they could plausibly claim they were misled. In 2024, absolutely not. This was the crowd waving “Mass Deportations Now” signs. They knew exactly what they were voting for.

dredecopp.bsky.social•5 days ago

schroederlaw.bsky.social•6 days ago

I generally agree. Trump very explicitly ran on ending free trade and deporting workers. But he also shoveled massive amounts of money at farmers last time when he hurt their export markets. He signals affinity and promises of $$$ to his supporters and pain to others.

dbonowitz.bsky.social•5 days ago

Doesn't mean they weren't still conned. It just means that, as the marks, they thought they were in on it.
https://bsky.app/profile/dbonowitz.bsky.social/post/3kc4qkwn4ds2o

dbonowitz.bsky.social•5 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/dbonowitz.bsky.social/post/3lgt6p6bjds2h

leegross.bsky.social•6 days ago

I hear you Paul - a lifetime of being a part of the fabric of rural America says it's not going to happen.

The racism, bigotry, and general fear of change/like it like it is mindsets don't support change. Throw in a shocking lack of empathy for others and the die is cast.

Wish it was different.

modestholdings.com•5 days ago

I live in Iowa, the state that has swung hardest and fastest to the right over the past decade. The pendulum swings both ways. The Republican Party of Iowa is currently waging civil war with itself over numerous issues that cannot be harmonized.

But we Democrats must put forward a vision.

leegross.bsky.social•5 days ago

As a native Iowan and ISU grad, I wish you well.

spyd34.bsky.social•5 days ago

Except that they're not gonna be *allowed* to vote against him (them), or their votes aren't gonna be counted.
So what, then, is it you think they can or might do?
(That's not trolling; it's a very serious question --and one no one seems to have the guts to address.)

walterdragon.bsky.social•6 days ago

They won’t though, they never will. Their racism and cultural resentment will always determine their choices.

daveb16.bsky.social•5 days ago

Sorry, but fuck that guy.

Maybe he should turn off Fox News and talk to people that actually know what's going on in the world.

I hope he loses his farm and his family winds up homeless.

Seriously, fuck that guy, and fuck WaPo for wanting others to care about him

sauldk.bsky.social•4 days ago

https://youtu.be/YMfWwwxFHeM

danielaphoto.bsky.social•5 days ago

Since 2016 the msm is telling these stories, it was the rural diner and now the farmers. I just would like once in a while a story about BHW voters and what they think and how they are affected..these people are beyond repair, I don’t give a flyin f*k they are on their own now, they have bootstraps

drdemocracy.bsky.social•5 days ago

No, the lesson is that The Traitor doesn’t care about anyone but himself—-oh, and he’s a traitor.

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/nation/2021/01/07/front-pages-capture-chaos-riots-us-capitol/6577931002/

voland66.bsky.social•6 days ago

I saw no evidence in this article that JJ realized that his face was eaten, who was the leopard, or returned (even considered returning) his leopard eat faces party membership card.

jenniferpetitt.bsky.social•5 days ago

This is such a well-written article. It made me cry. How are we so broken?

josey75.bsky.social•5 days ago

Well they voted for him - twice - even after having to bailed out the first go around... you reap what you sow...

zebomatic.bsky.social•6 days ago

Ex-Nebraskan here. The thing rural agrarian voters will never admit, the quality of their lives depend almost wholly on agricultural subsidies.

kitspecial.bsky.social•6 days ago

They never will do anything, racism is ingrained in their lives

tartan37.bsky.social•6 days ago

Maybe in four years… unless they vote republican again. I hold out a little hope for sense and sensibility.

realitycheck.bsky.social•6 days ago

What a great story of a Colorado farmer and the Guatemalan man he hires to work for him.

JJ wants to invest in his farm, and his family wants to learn Spanish.

Otto wants to work hard and be reunited with his wife, who lives in Rhode Island.

Everyone doing the right thing, except the Trump admin.

peter-speeder1.bsky.social•6 days ago

But will they? So far they have fallen for the “Dems are anti-American” BS. How bad do they have to be hurt to see the GOP cares nothing about them?

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