It Isn't Possible To Follow Jesus' Teachings And Support Trump

Personally, I'm not into churches or ritual or even the Bible. But Jesus had some great messages that I meditate on a lot. That said, there are a lot of fake Christians around who seem to think Jesus' message needs to be reversed. And those are Trump followers. My old pal Frank Schaeffer wrote about that on his blog and made the tape above that you might want to watch today instead of going to church. His point: Trumps' white evangelicals are the only Americans who disrespect Jesus.

Based on their support for Trump, American white evangelicals are the only people in America who consistently seem to disrespect, reject and ignore the teachings of Jesus.

Trump-supporting white evangelicals’ enabling of Trump’s Republican politics of lies of, cruelty, misogyny, favoring the wealthy, racism, and unpatriotic disrespect for our military prove that evangelicals are the only Americans we can say with certainty hate Jesus’ teachings.

Liberal secular Democrat-voting Americans seem to follow the teachings of Jesus much more closely these days than do white evangelical Trump supporters. Weird, Huh?

In case you missed it on Friday, I thought I'd include a message from a friend who I met through Frank, a pastor in Wake County, North Carolina who is running for Congress, Jason Butler. It's a swing district but the current Representative is radical Trump enabler George Holding, a fanatic opponent of anything that helps working families or immigrants or minorities or anyone Jesus' gospel was meant for. I asked Jason what he thought about Holding's vote against the DREAM Act. "The Republican Party," he told me, "is in the midst of a decade long campaign to punish and exclude children of color. From voting against Dreamers, to border family separation, to cutting life saving assistance programs, to defunding City schools-- all of these serve one purpose: punish children. But yet, the vast majority of Republican voters and politicians flood into conservative Christian churches this time of year and claim to worship the baby Jesus-- a dark skinned immigrant Jewish boy. There is a massive disconnect happening here and it is time for this hypocrisy to be unveiled. In moderate districts all across the country, exactly like NC-02, where high numbers of voters claim a conservative Christian faith, we need to frame these elections as for the future of our children. Politicians, like Holding, who have consistently voted to punish children of color need to be held accountable. We live in a nation where kids in Flint, Michigan have lead poisoning from unsafe drinking water; where over 5,000 kids are homeless in the wealthiest county in North Carolina, Wake county; where Dreamers are pushed out; and where tens of thousands of immigrant children are living in detention centers. And all of this is being driven by Republican politicians who are supported by conservative Christians. It must stop. And it can. I believe that if Democratic candidates in moderate districts frame their progressive policies as providing the brightest future for our children then the Republican position can crumble and those like Holding will see their cruel positions that harm children be their undoing. We must make this happen as we are not only fighting for our own positions-- we are truly in a fight for the future of America's children."

A Do Nothing Congress? Well, A Do Nothing Senate, Compliments Of Moscow Mitch

I didn't go to Thanksgiving dinner last night. I just didn't want to political arguments with friends. Oh, obviously all my friends hate Trump's guts and they all want to see him impeached and removed. The only arguments there would be between those who want to see him in prison and those who want to see him face... well something more final. No, the political arguments I didn't want to face have to do with the primary. Not everyone is a Bernie supporter. I can handle that. But on Wednesday night one told me she is fully backing Bloomberg. That's too much for me. I don't eat turkey anyway and these kinds of holidays are always good times for Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Indian food.

But if you were at a gathering where someone gets all his news from Fox or Hate Talk Radio, you would have needed to be prepared for the inevitable claim that because of impeachment mania the Democrats hadn't accomplished anything in Congress. Trump and his media allies hammer on that fabrication daily and his dull-mind supporters-- remember, 36% of Americans are unaware that Trump is a congenital liar-- have bought into that.

The Democrats have passed scores of bills, some with bipartisan majorities, that have been blocked by Moscow Mitch from even being debated-- let alone voted on-- in the Senate.

Let's start with an important piece of legislation that has widespread public support-- and that even some House Republicans backed: the Equality Act (H.R.5). It passed with a 236-173 majority, every single Democrat plus 8 Republicans voting for it. The Republicans who voted for it:

• Susan Brooks (IN), retiring
• Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), moderate district
• Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), swing district
• Will Hurd (TX), retiring
• John Katko (NY), blue district
• Tom Reed (NY), moderate district
• Elise Stefanik (NY), moderate district
• Greg Walden (OR), moderate district

The bill prohibits employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Although some on the far right claim it is their "religious freedom" to oppress the gay community, opposing the bill is akin to a declaration of war against gay and trans men and women and their friends and families. Voting against something like this isn't going to hurt Republicans like Louie Gohmert and Patrick McHenry (ironically, a closet case himself) in backward districts filled with primitive hate-mongers. But there are a number of Republicans who voted against this bill who will be hurt politically in more moderate districts-- Fred Upton in Kalamazoo, Devin Nunes in Fresno, Lee Zeldin in Suffolk County, Ken Calvert in Riverside County, Michael McCaul in Austin, Rodney Davis in Champaign and Springfield, Tom Emmer in St. Cloud and the Minneapolis exurbs, Jaime Herrera Beutler in Vancouver and the Portland exurbs...

The Dream And Promise Act (H.R. 6) was another one that passed the House with a bipartisan majority-- 237-187-- and was then thrown in the garbage by Moscow Mitch with no debate and no vote. Every Democrat and 7 Republicans voted for it. Popular with voters, the bill would provide legal protections to hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Jason Butler is the progressive Wake County pastor running for a swing district seat occupied by radical right Republican George Holding who, of course, voted against the Dreamers every time he's had the opportunity to do so. Jason has a very different perspective and he shared it with us this morning: "The Republican party is in the midst of a decade long campaign to punish and exclude children of color. From voting against Dreamers, to border family separation, to cutting life saving assistance programs, to defunding City schools-- all of these serve one purpose: punish children. But yet, the vast majority of Republican voters and politicians flood into conservative Christian churches this time of year and claim to worship the baby Jesus-- a dark skinned immigrant Jewish boy. There is a massive disconnect happening here and it is time for this hypocrisy to be unveiled. In moderate districts all across the country, exactly like NC-02, where high numbers of voters claim a conservative Christian faith, we need to frame these elections as for the future of our children. Politicians, like Holding, who have consistently voted to punish children of color need to be held accountable. We live in a nation where kids in Flint, Michigan have lead poisoning from unsafe drinking water; where over 5,000 kids are homeless in the wealthiest county in North Carolina, Wake county; where Dreamers are pushed out; and where tens of thousands of immigrant children are living in detention centers. And all of this is being driven by Republican politicians who are supported by conservative Christians. It must stop. And it can. I believe that if Democratic candidates in moderate districts frame their progressive policies as providing the brightest future for our children then the Republican position can crumble and those like Holding will see their cruel positions that harm children be their undoing. We must make this happen as we are not only fighting for our own positions-- we are truly in a fight for the future of America's children."

Rosa DeLauro introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R.7) as soon as the 116th Congress was sworn in. It has 239 co-sponsors, starting with Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn. In the end, even the most backward conservative Blue Dogs like Jeff Van Drew, Henry Cuellar, Anthony Brindisi, Tom O'Halleran, Jim Costa, Kendra Horn, Dan Lipinski, Joe Cunningham and Collin Peterson signed on as co-sponsors. This should have been easy for everyone to vote for. Women make, on average, 82 cents for every dollar a man makes doing the same job. DeLauro's bill aims to end that by ending gender wage discrimination in the workplace. The bill would have definitely passed the Senate so, once again, Moscow Mitch just refused to allow a vote. Voting against this is going to cost Republicans like Fred Upton (MI), John Katko (NY), Lee Zeldin (NY), Don Bacon (NE), Roger Williams (TX)...

Kara Eastman, who would have co-sponsored DeLauro's Paycheck Fairness Act is hardly the only woman in Omaha who was unhappy with his vote against it. "Bacon consistently gives excuses as to why he does not support women and equality," she told me this morning. "His voting record on women’s issues has been abysmal and yet he touts himself as 'bipartisan'-- which is completely false since he votes 96% with Trump. For me, this is not about identity politics; it’s about being a fair representative to the women in our district. We should not have to keep fighting against the Republican Party dominance in Nebraska that serves to diminish women’s roles, jobs and service. It’s time for new leadership now."

H.R.8 was another one the Democrats passed with bipartisan support that Moscow Mitch has kept bottled up. This one, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, passed 240-190 last February. Two reactionary Democrats-- Collin Peterson of Minneapolis and Jared Golden of Maine-- were the only Democrats to oppose it, but 8 Republicans voted for it. Suburban district Republicans who voted no, like Lee Zeldin (NY), Ken Calvert (CA), John Carter (TX), Debbie Lesko (AZ), David Joyce (OH), Tim Walberg (MI), Roger Williams (TX), Tom Reed (NY), Michael McCaul (Texas), George Holding (NC), Duncan Hunter (CA)... could have a hard time explaining their votes to wrathful parents next year. This is another one that would pass the Senate if it were not being battled up by Moscow Mitch (and Trump).

Younger voters see the Climate Crisis as the most important topic Congress should be dealing with. They hate Trump because of it and Republicans who backed in by opposing H.R. 9, Kathy Castor's very moderate Climate Action Now Act, made a big mistake. This one passed the House on May 2 with a 231-190 bipartisan majority. It was technically bipartisan; every Democrat voted yes and 3 Republicans joined them. McConnell laughed when it was sent over to him and, as usual, refused a debate or a vote.

Do you want me to keep going? H.R. 397-- the Rehabilitation for Multi-employer Pensions Act-- passed 264 to 169, every Democrat plus 29 Republicans on board. The bill is meant to stabilize a crisis in pension plans covering about 10 million workers, particularly truck drivers and coal miners by creating a federal trust fund providing low-interest government-backed loans. Republicans, most of whom voted to bail out Wall Street banksters, called this a government bailout for private-sector pension plans. In West Virginia, Republican David McKinley was smart enough to vote for his own constituents instead of his party's vicious anti-worker ideology. His fellow Republicans in coal country Carol Miller and Alex Mooney, weren't as smart and both are counting on the DCCC running incompetent candidates against them who don't make the case.

The Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582) was another important bill the Democrats passed with a bipartisan majority that was shit-canned by Moscow Mitch. The purpose was to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and it passed in July 231-199, just 3 Republicans voting with the Democrats. It's worth mentioning that 6 of the most repulsive anti-worker Blue Dogs voted with the Republicans on this one: Anthony Brindisi (NY), Kurt Schrader (OR), Kendra Horn (OK), Ben McAdams (UT), Xochitl Torres Small (NM) and Joe Cunningham (SC).

Another Moscow Mitch special was to refuse to allow a vote on The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (H.R. 1585), which passed with a huge majority, 263-158, 33 Republicans abandoning their woman-hating party to vote with the Democrats. (One woman-hating Blue Dog Dem, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted with the GOP.)

We could spend the whole day doing this. Maybe the DCCC and DSCC should. It would go a long way in helping Americans understand why every single Republican in Congress needs to be defeated-- along with the Blue Dogs-- in 2020. In private, Republicans say they have to vote against the interests of their constituents in order to support the "president." That should be enough reason to vote against them all. Are you looking for a Republican to spare? Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) might not be the best candidate in his race this cycle but he only voted with Trump 36.4% of the time-- the only one who voted against Trump more than with Trump.

Boycott Whole Foods? Not So Fast

Moscow Mitch is probably the second biggest existential threat to our country after Trump. So WholeFoods Magazine decided it would be a smart move to name him 2019 Person of the Year (for championing a hemp in Kentucky). That sparked calls for a boycott, but... By all means, boycott WholeFoods Magazine. But the magazine has nothing to do with the supermarket chain. Better idea: do whatever you can to defeat McConnell's reelection next year.

Hashtags Are Not Activism... And Social Media Only Accomplishes So Much.

Not all Democrats are the same. Filling Congress with garden variety Democrats isn't even a good idea. It would just enable the worst instincts of the worst power-mad, values-free careerist Democrats, the Schumers, Emanuels, Bidens, Bustoses and Hoyers. Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and our nation. He's got to be dealt with. But nominating Joe Biden is exactly the wrong way to deal with him, absolutely guaranteeing that Trumpism will triumph, either in 2020 or soon after. Political hacks like Biden and what they stand for-- nothing-- is what caused us to be burdened with Trumpism to begin with. We're in the midst of a primary. We should pick the best Democrat running, not the one the corporate-- anti-working class-- media tells us can beat Trump, the way they told us Hillary would-- just to prevent Bernie from actually doing so. Bernie's as much a threat to our corporate overlords as Spartacus was a threat to Rome's slaving-owning aristocracy.

Yesterday John Pavlovitz compared hashtags to bumper stickers-- and suggested there is an alternative to both, one that as Americans, we need to start seriously thinking about. Hashtage, he wrote "change nothing."

• They don’t strike fear into the hearts of criminals.
• They don’t intimidate lawless politicians.
• They don’t terrify soulless, malevolent despots.
• They don’t force corrupt leaders out into the light.

• They don’t change legislation or alter elections.

• They don’t bring revolutions.

Neither do politicians who run for office because of their egos. Revolutions take a lot of selflessness and a lot of planning. Revolutions are the opposite of Status Quo Joe.

All hashtags do is let us do the absolute minimum and imagine that we’re helping. They are emotional intoxicants meant to briefly soothe us and numb us enough so that we can bear the burdens in front of us. 
They give us the illusion of power while leaving us powerless.
They are paper tigers we hope will scare away the real monsters.

...[Trump and his henchmen] know that we mistake social media for work and hashtags for activism. They know that whenever a new flood of passion rises and trends, they need only wait it out, let the words swell and crash loudly through our newsfeeds and timelines-- until they soon disappear.

They realize that our hashtags and campaigns and marches are events, they are not movements, and all they need to do is weather a little noise and bombast for a few hour-- and then they can continue eroding our freedoms, compromising our safety, and winning the war.

And they are winning-- while we’re flexing on social media.

In Hong Kong and Lebanon and Barcelona, people are reminding us that there is a cost to freedom, a price to be paid for fighting injustice, there is collateral damage to pushing back against tyranny. There is more required than a few keystrokes and a new status update. We need to get into the trenches and put skin in the game. We need to incarnate our convictions.

In the face of unprecedented corruption and human rights violations and legislative overreach, Americans are going to need to sacrifice more than two-inch space on our timelines.

We’re eventually going to have to show up.

We’re going to have to speak in one unified, sustained voice.

We’re going to have to be present and unmovable, and place ourselves in harm’s way-- and I’m not sure we’re up for that in America.

We used to be. Our nation’s history is filled with courageous, sacrificial people who decided that their lives and the lives of people who would follow them here (people like us), merited their inconvenience and their loss of income and their received injuries and their bold movement into the path of police dogs and firehouses and bullets.

There are people here today who can marry and vote and live in the country, because someone gave enough of a damn to resist, not with words but with their bodies and their presence and their lives. The fact that we haven’t been moved enough to move yet makes me worry that we will never be. I fear we don’t care enough to say enough is enough.

I feel like we’re the frog slowly being boiled alive, while unaware of the temperature steadily rising around us. I’m afraid that we’ll sit here and simmer until it’s too late, and all we’ll leave behind are the black and white words we imagined would save us.

I hope we can wake up enough and find enough energy to make our presence here be felt enough so that those who follow us will inherit something worthy of them.

Hashtags are not activism.


They will not save us.


We need to save ourselves.

I spoke with some of the Blue America-endorsed congressional candidates who are real activists and not just twitter warriors. Texan Mike Siegel was the first to respond. "What gets me out of bed in the morning is not raising money, or expanding my social media reach or cultivating influential supporters," he said. "For me, this is about using a Congressional campaign to accomplish real things in the world. How can we use the apparatus and infrastructure, the staff and communications tools, to advance movements for progressive social change? In 2018, it was fighting for the voting rights of students at an historically-Black university, Prairie View A&M. I joined with local folks to protest a vote suppression policy, that was making it hard for students to vote; when I sent a staffer to deliver a demand letter, he was promptly arrested. The incident brought local and national attention to the issue, and when Rachel Maddow had us on her show, officials decided to reverse their decision. In 2019, a year before the 2020 election, we've been hard at work on similar projects. In February we mobilized to oppose the confirmation of a Texas Secretary of State who had attempted to purge 95,000 Mexican-Americans from the voting rolls. In March we knocked doors to keep open a hospital in rural La Grange. In June we got out the vote for a Democrat running for City Council in rural Bastrop County. And in September we held the first Texas town hall on the Green New Deal. Through these actions, we should what real, progressive representation looks like. My pitch is not, 'I'm so great, put me in office.' Rather, it's 'this is how we build power, this is how we build a movement, and when we win this seat, the movement will have a voice in Congress.' Through this type of campaign, we are earning the support of organizers and activists-- people who may not be on the DCCC donor list, but who can get out the vote. And it is with these people-- the engaged, concerned citizens of this district-- that we will beat the reactionary, elitist Rep. McCaul, and elect a real progressive in Texas 10."

Rachel Ventura is another through-and-through activist. A member of the Will County board, now she's running for Congress in a Chicagoland district occupied by multimillionaire New Dem Bill Foster. "When," she asked rhetorically, "is enough enough and have the American people been completely duped into believing the words on social media will change anything? I recently found myself explaining why a climate strike isn’t supposed to be convenient. No one should have to explain this. I’ve protested against wars, marched against Monsanto, marched for women’s rights, rallied for our state to pass a budget, stood on the picket lines with teachers and union workers, fought against warehouse expansions, stood up to city hall and our police, demanded we abolish ICE, joined hundreds in multiple climate marches and strikes, rallied for Medicare for all, knocked thousands of doors, and sent money for the fights I couldn’t attend like the protest in North Dakota against the pipeline. Some of these fights we are still fighting.

When people physically show up it sends a different message then an email, phone call, or tweet. It says I was moved enough to do something. While social media has it’s uses as a mass communication tool with some engagement, it does not replace the importance of showing up, nor does it leave one with the sense of empowerment. If you have ever been in a large group you have probably felt the collective energy it creates. That feeling has the power to move mountains and change political landscapes. If you have never felt this it is time to step out your door and organize.

You can step out your door and step into our people-powered campaign. We are always willing to give you your first opportunity knocking on doors. Ventura for Congress is a training ground for future activists and candidates. If you want to learn how to run a winning grassroots campaign, this is the place to do it. If you want to talk to wealthy donors so you can hear their perspective on the world and then buy TV ads, this is not the campaign for you.

Margaret Mead said it best “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Jason Butler, a Wake County, North Carolina progressive pastor and long-time grassroots activist, quoted Frederick Douglas: 'Power concedes nothing without a demand.' Those in power will not let their power go because of a hashtag. They will only change when they see that they are met with a demand from an equally powerful group of individuals that threaten their status. That is why we must organize for the common good. We must organize people and organize money in order meet those who are holding power with a demand from the masses that gives the powerful little choice but to react to us. Organized people have power that creates reactions and once the powerful begin to react-- then change is possible. But, just as organized labor must sometimes strike to affect change, so too will we have to strike-- march-- raise our voice-- come together and struggle for the flourishing future we desire."

Tacoma Washington affordable housing activist Rebecca Parson knows what she's talking about. "Activism and organizing in our communities," she told us, "is so important, because it lets us create the change we need. The Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee formed out of a shared struggle after a real estate developer evicted an entire apartment building. Myself and other tenants have organized to win stronger protections for tenants in Tacoma, protections that went on to influence state-wide protections that the legislature passed as well. These changes have real, material impacts in our lives, but the struggle continues. As Congresswoman for Washington's 6th District, I will fight for national rent control, national just cause for eviction, massive construction of social housing, and the elimination of homelessness. But I won't be able to do it alone, and neither will other progressive members of Congress. We need the grassroots pushing for change, like when the Sunrise Movement occupied Speaker Pelosi's office. With organizers on the 'outside' and legislators on the 'inside,' we can win."

Eva Putzova was an activist who got elected to the Flagstaff City Council. Now she's running for a congressional seat occupied by "former" Republican Tom O'Halleran who you could call the opposite of an activist. "Real activism," said Eva, "comes out of fighting to improve the lives of ordinary people with deeds, not just words. I began my activism in Flagstaff as a member of community organization called the Friends of Flagstaff's Future whose goal was to protect open spaces and advocate for city development and housing policies that were environmentally sustainable and social equitable. Organizing members, strategizing around the local policies, and spending countless hours in front of the City Council led to another time-consuming, 5-year service on the city’s Regional Plan Committee. Realizing that city officials could ignore the recommendations expressed in the Regional Plan, I decided to run for city council to be in a position where I could represent those whose voices are too often ignored. In my year-long campaign for the council I went door to door to talk to voters. I won because I was upfront about my values and positions and clearly identified my top priority. Everyone knew what I stood for when I talked about shared prosperity and living wages and they responded by voting me in by a large margin. Then I worked on delivering on my campaign promise. The conservative Council I joined wouldn’t raise wages legislatively, so I decided to lead a citizen initiative campaign to raise Flagstaff's minimum wage in my spare time. I met with workers regularly to learn about the hardships they faced working for low wages and being cheated by their employers on a regular basis. Our initiative was framed in a way that offered a solution to their exploitation and they voted overwhelmingly for the initiative. In all my organizing activities in Flagstaff, I learned that to be a successful social-political activist one must be clear about their values, engage with people constantly to listen to their concerns, and then develop a plan that will accomplish the goals. There is no shortcut to bringing about radical social change. Armchair philosophers and twitter warriors can only interpret the world. The point is to change it."

Conservatives Are Stomping Out Family Farms-- And Not Just Republican Conservatives Either

You know what's bipartisan in DC? Agricultural policy-- and it sucks, for farmers, for rural communities and for consumers. Jeff Hauser and Eleanor Eagan, reporting for Washington Monthly, have no doubt that the Trump Regime is up to no good when it comes to family farms, but they point out that it isn't just Trump and the Republicans. "The administration is letting agribusiness run amok, they wrote. But, they ask, where is the congressional oversight?

Collin Peterson is one of the most conservative, Republican-like Democrats-- an extreme right Blue Dog in a Trumpist district-- in Congress. Right up against the Dakotas-- from the border of Manitoba across from Kittson County, down to Pipestone County in the south-- his vast rural district has a PVI of R+12, the reddest district held by any Democrat in the House. And he holds it by playing ball with the GOP. Trump beat Hillary by over 20 points in the district, 61.8% to 31.0%. Ironically, while Trump swept MN-07, Bernie did better than Hillary-- and everyone else-- on caucus day in 2016.

• Bernie- 6,608
• Ted Cruz- 4,326
• Hillary- 3,852
• Señor Trumpanzee- 3,401

Voters wanted change-- and they knew who was offering it for real.

Last year Amy Klobuchar did well in MN-07 but neither Tina Smith, also running for the Senate, nor Tim Walz, the Democrats' successful gubernatorial candidate, did. Collin Peterson won again, though-- 146,672 (52.1%) to 134,668 (47.9%). In 2016 Peterson beat the same GOP opponent, Dave Hughes by about the same margin, having raised $1,201,913 compared to Hughes' $19,836. Much of Peterson's big fundraising advantage cames, as it always does, from agribusiness. In 2018 Peterson raised $1,425,449 (and was forced to spend more than he raised) but Hughes raised much more than he had in 2016-- $232,724. It will be a miracle if Peterson survives next year. There are 5 Republicans competing to take him on and two of them, Noel Collins (a self-funder) and Michelle Fischbach (the party favorite) have raised6 figures. Hughes is giving it another shot but isn't raising significant money. There's also a Democrat primarying Collins, Stephen Emery but he's not raising any money and he's actually challenging Peterson from the right as a Pelosi lapdog!

Here's Emery's schpiel:

He has presided over the rise of the mega corporate farm and multi-national agriculture corporation and demise of our rural communities and family farms.

He voted to allow illegal immigrants to vote in our elections!

He says he’s the most bi-partisan member of Congress, but he votes with Nancy Pelsosi almost all of the time and gives his money to extremely liberal causes that oppose the issues he says he supports.

Nancy Pelosi effectively is the Representative for the Minnesota Seventh Congressional District. The first thing Collin Peterson does after he is elected is to vote for Nancy Pelosi. He helps put her in charge of the machinery of Congress. He knows that much of what occurs there is procedural and through committees, so the leader wields incredible power. She has a say as to who serves on which committee, and how, and if, bills move through the House. Furthermore, he knows that Congress works essentially through a two party system, and they tend to vote in groups, so what the leader pushes to a large measure determines what the result will be.

So, it doesn’t matter how he votes on any particular bill, because he votes “yes” on Nancy Pelosi’s initiatives when he voted for her to lead the Democrats in Congress, and that is the vote that matters. Has his vote against a Pelosi initiative ever meant the difference of whether it passes? I don’t think so, and so it is always a safe, meaningless vote-- except for his re-electability.

So, regardless of how Collin Peterson otherwise may vote, a vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and gun control;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for the Nancy Pelosi and Obamacare and poorer medical care;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and sodomy and biological males in women’s showers and bathrooms;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and Islam and Muslims and illegal aliens sweeping across the nation and voting in our elections! The rise of the Islamist has occurred on his watch and he hasn’t done anything to address it!;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for the Nancy Pelosi and more and more in-your-face control by the United Nations over our lives;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and extreme environmentalism.

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and Planned Parenthood and the butchering of babies and the sale of baby parts;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and mega corporate farming and disenfranchising our children from remaining on the land and continuing farming which is the most common form of free enterprise;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and more and more welfare that the nation can’t support and that isn’t good for the welfare recipient or the taxpayer, and a complete collapse of our economy due to run-away debt;

A vote for Collin Peterson is a vote for Nancy Pelosi and this massive tax and spend program that is wrapped around this lie called man-made global warming.

We need different, and far better, representation in Washington, D.C.

The people who established this nation intended for a continual rotation of citizens for elective positions, not career politicians like Collin Peterson. Let’s value private enterprise and personal responsibility. Let’s spend within our means and not create more debt for our children and grandchildren.

Most of it's a bunch of crazy Republican talking points-- except for the first complaint: "He has presided over the rise of the mega corporate farm and multi-national agriculture corporation and demise of our rural communities and family farms." There is where he has a valid point.

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, told Wisconsin dairy farmers that "In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability." In other words, wrote Hauser and Eagan, "he was telling the farmers: you’re probably screwed and there’s nothing you can do about it."

Contrary to Perdue’s claims, the deaths of small farms are not a result of natural forces. They are a consequence of explicit policy choices that have allowed for the rampant consolidation and disinvestment that are crushing rural communities. Only two decades ago, there were 600 companies that sold seed. Today, there are only four. It’s no wonder that the cost of seeds and plant corn has risen 329 percent in that time period, with similar increases for other crops.

Perdue hasn’t just failed to recognize the root causes of farmers’ pain; he has actively aided the forces responsible for it. From his first days in office, he has turned the full power of the USDA against farmers and rural communities on behalf of Big Agriculture, betraying one of the constituencies most vital to Trump’s 2016 win.

None of this should surprise anyone. What should be genuinely shocking, however, is that Congressman Collin Peterson, a Democrat from Minnesota and the chair of the House Agriculture Committee, has been practically silent about these attacks. Over the past nine months, he has only convened one full committee hearing. And while his panel heard testimony from Perdue in February, Peterson has yet to call him back despite his committing numerous transgressions since, including his continued efforts to impose work requirements on access to food stamps and pressing ahead to relocate the department’s research wing out of D.C.

Peterson, who declined our request for comment, has failed to fulfill his obligation to protect farmers and rural communities. That is not only bad on the substance, but it is a missed opportunity for Democrats to win back support among American farmers, who overwhelmingly pulled the lever for Trump in 2016.

In recent years, consolidated agribusinesses have translated their rising profits into formidable political power. They have successfully weakened or killed many measures that would have limited their control over farmers’ lives and livelihoods, including fighting laws that would give farmers the right to repair their own equipment, something that overzealous copyright protections have prevented them from doing. When these and other nasty practices get too much attention, Big Ag wields its considerable weight to silence critics, whether that means getting a newspaper cartoonist fired or suing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to close a public comment period on a proposed merger.

Over the past few decades, Democrats have too often either supported the policies that got us here, or fallen short in resisting them. In 2008, Barack Obama made fighting consolidation a feature of his agricultural policy platform. But once in power, he failed to act decisively on those promises. His administration hesitated to enact proposed regulations that would have made it easier for contract farmers to sue packing and processing companies for unfair practices. Then, it found itself unable to move forward once Republicans took the House in 2010.

As with most things, however, the Trump administration has taken a bad problem and made it worse. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice approved a merger between two agricultural industry giants, Monsanto and Bayer, allowing for the creation of a new behemoth. And those Obama-era contracting rules? They were eventually approved in 2016, but Perdue promptly scrapped them after taking power. Worse yet, Perdue’s USDA has walked back enforcement of many of the remaining rules to protect contract farmers.

This is all without mentioning what’s at the forefront of people’s minds when they think about Trump’s impact on farmers: trade policy. Yet as these examples should make clear, the harm this administration is inflicting on farmers goes well beyond trade.

Unfortunately, House Democrats have done little to draw attention to Trump’s deleterious agricultural policies When they do respond by holding a hearing, like over the decision to move the USDA’s Economic Research Service to Kansas City, they fail to confront those responsible for their actions, or take definitive actions to stop them.

Meanwhile, in the same time span that Peterson only convened one full committee hearing, Agriculture’s six subcommittees have held a combined 19 hearings, seven of which involved testimony from USDA officials. The Committee has issued zero subpoenas to corporate or governmental actors.

Peterson should reverse course and start from the top. The USDA is a big department with a diverse set of important responsibilities, ranging from protecting farming and rural economies, to ensuring food safety and administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

...Democrats need to perform meaningful oversight of the Trump administration’s assault on American farmers. Impeachment doesn’t obviate the need for skeptical oversight. It underscores it. Oversight is, put simply, a basic fulfillment of Congress’ governing obligations. It can uncover abuse, create pressure for change, and facilitate the development of much needed policy alternatives. And, as an added bonus, the political upside seems clear.

This strategy might seem somewhat unorthodox. It contravenes the gospel that Democrats can only win agricultural districts by espousing a quiet, inoffensive centrism. But that would cede control of the political debate to Trump. If Democrats only play on the president’s terms, the conversation will always shift away from the real issue.

Democrats must therefore redefine the debate on agriculture policy through rigorous oversight. In rural America, they have to demonstrate their willingness to take on political corruption of all shades, and to challenge corporate America’s chokehold over the political process.

Yet Democrats have been surprisingly unwilling to take on one of the most unifying issues across the electorate: how the system is rigged to hurt ordinary people and boost big corporations.

Trump has created an opportunity for Democrats to take up this message in virtually every area of policy, but now especially with farmers. House Democrats have a unique opening to prove to rural voters that they are serious about taking on structural inequities. All they have to do is highlight and push back against the administration’s efforts to enrich corporations at the expense of small farmers. In other words, they have to simply do their jobs.

J.D. Scholten, who the day after Perdue's talk with the Wisconsin day farmers, termed his comments "a middle finger to family farmers," is running for Congress in Iowa's 4th district, the only one still in GOP hands, the only one held by a white nationalist (Steve King). King was kicked off the House Agriculture Committee by Paul Ryan for his repeated inflammatory racist comments. No one doubts that on the first day of Scholten's appearance as a member of Congress, Pelosi will make sure IA-04 is represented on that committee again. "American farmers are struggling to get by," he told me yesterday, "forced to work one, two, or more jobs off the farm to make ends meet. We, the Democratic Party, are supposed to be the party of the working class-- we’re supposed to be voice of the voiceless, the champion for those who have been left behind. As corporations further consolidate and control the markets, the Democratic Party has a responsibility to speak out and fight for workers. This administration has manipulated the trade war for the gain of Trump’s donors, abused the RFS to the benefit of big oil, dismantled the USDA, has hurt worker safety, and much more-- but we’ve given rural America no viable alternative. It’s past time for Democrats to show up: to prove that we’re trustworthy, honest and willing to fight for working people. Only then, can we elect a fighter who is willing to stand for everyday people rather than someone who can max out on a donation check."

The gospel that Democrats can only win agricultural districts by espousing a quiet, inoffensive centrism? Not J.D. Scholten. Take a look at Bernie's rural development agenda. That's about as far as you can get from inoffensive centrism. But Peterson's congressional district wasn't the only rural district where Bernie trounced Hillary.

Take the vast rural district in northeast California (CA-01). There are 11 counties. Last year, corporate Democrat Dianne Feinstein lost every one of them. Gavin Newsom, also a corporatist, lost 10 of the 11. Bernie did a lot better in 2016-- and Audrey Denney, a progressive running on much of Bernie's populist program won the biggest county in the district, Butte, and well as Nevada County. Bernie won 9 of the 11 counties and won the mostly rural and small town congressional district convincingly. Here were Bernie's numbers:

• Butte- 58.9%
• Shasta- 50.0%
• Nevada- 59.8%
• Placer- 42.0%
• Tehama- 49.6%
• Siskiyou- 58.0%
• Plumas- 53.7%
• Lassen- 50.8%
• Modoc- 50.7%
• Sierra- 55.8%
• Glenn- 48.8%

Audrey Denney is taking on Trump enabler Doug LaMalfa again this cycle. She told us that "the Trump Administration policies are directly hurting farmers all over the country. According to the American Farm Bureau, farm bankruptcy filings for 2019 through June were up 13% from 2018 and loan delinquency rates are on the rise. North State farmers are asking for trade policies that expand markets and immigration reform that helps them get the labor they need. Congressman LaMalfa-- a farmer himself-- has failed to be an advocate for the industry he represents. I’ve worked in agriculture education my entire career and can’t wait to fight for North State farmers and ranchers when they send me to DC... Every year it becomes harder and harder for farmer and ranchers to make their work pencil. Tariffs are adding increasing pressure on farmers’ already razor thin profit margins-- add this to an inability to find and retain skilled labor-- and many North State farmers are really hurting. Every multi-generational family famers’ nightmare is being the generation that loses the farm. My family lived that reality with the 2008 recession-- this is a personal issue for me."





Kathy Ellis is running in one of the reddest rural districts in America, located in the southeast corner of Missouri. Farmers and the small towns that depend on agriculture to sustain them are hurting there. "Agribusiness has taken over rural communities like mine," she told us today. "Between climate change damaging crops and the impact of Trump's tariffs, farmers are left without options other than to sell to Agribusiness Companies. It takes away local control of these farms and it damages our local economy. And to make matters worse, our current representative not only doesn't stop this, he also takes thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from these companies. He's not working on behalf of farmers. He's working on behalf of Big Agriculture, and it must stop."

Progressive North Carolina pastor Jason Butler looks at the problem beyond mere congressional policy. "Perception," he said, "is reality and the reality is: DC Democrats don’t really seem to care about the rural community. If they did-- as this article points out-- they’d step up and do something. Trump has created incredible openings in the rural community through damaging trade wars and damaging farming policies-- but corporate Democrats aren’t countering it. Instead, we too, seem bent on blaming the rural community for electing and sustaining Trump. On one hand, we are telling the rural community that we (Democrats) will help you more, but on the other hand we are blaming them for our current situation. No one wants to be part of a group that looks down on them-- even if they will help them more. I think the Democrats' problem goes much deeper than farming policy-- it goes into the reality that we don’t appreciate the rural American experience. We used to-- but we don’t anymore. And while Republican policy does not help them, and even hurts them-- they value (or pretend to value) rural life and rural values. And at the end of the day, all of us want to belong to a group of people that value us and our experience. Winning the trust of the rural community won’t be easy, and will take some time-- but here is where we should start-- places like this: making sure we stand up for farmers-- big and small, making sure we are boldly pushing policies that sustain and empower rural life, and holding this administration accountable for its lack of rural support."

Tired Of Our Side Being Represented By Scaredy Cats? More Milquetoast Not What You're Looking For?

I talk to candidates all day, 7 days a week. I'm so sick of hearing from "progressives" who back Medicare-for-All but are afraid to say the words... or of Democrats who believe in the Green New Deal as much as I do but have been counseled to not use the term or to speak out about it too much. One candidate who I've known for years and I know is a progressive told me he's running a moderate campaign-- in a deep, deep blue district, because a Blue Dog piece of shit in a red district told him that is the only way to win. Do you want more Democrats like Ted Lieu, Rashida Tlaib, Alan Grayson, Jamie Raskin, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ro Khanna, Maxine Waters and AOC who speak out and speak loudly and plainly? I do... and that's why I'm part of Blue America and work to raise money for progressive courageous candidates.

Last cycle the DCCC sold voters on the proposition that a bunch of veterans were brave and bold and would make great members of Congress. What a tragic joke that turned out to be. They may have been heroic on the battlefield but they sure are a pack of cowardly careerists afraid of their own shadows in Congress. The military freshman are nearly all among the worst, tepid, wishy-washy Democrats in the House-- Chrissy Houlahan (who never saw any combat), Jason Crow, Max Rose, Jared Golden, Conor Lamb (no combat duty), Gil Cisneros (no combat duty), Mikey Sherrill (no combat duty), Elaine Luria (no combat duty) all have something in common-- F ratings from ProgressivePunch. They served their country but that hasn't made them good members of Congress, not even a little.

I'm looking for men and women candidates who are not so scared shitless of losing that they buckle under to corporate interests and give a shit about what careerist garbage like Chuck Schumer and Steny Hoyer have to say. And, I'm happy to say that this cycle there are plenty of them-- from Rebecca Parson (WA) on the most northwesterly piece of the continental United States to Brianna Wu (MA) in one of the districts furthest east. And in between: Jessica Ventura (IL), Kim Williams (CA), Nate McMurray (NY), Michael Owens (GA), Eva Putzova (AZ), Mike Siegel (TX), Morgan Harper (OH), Jason Butler (NC), Mark Gamba (OR)...

How do I know they're going to be courageous? That's a good question and it has a lot to do with my gut-- which is not infallible. Blue America doesn't ask candidates to fill out questionnaires. We try to get to know them. Even then, we sometimes get played. Last year we called it right with AOC but I couldn't have been more wrong with Jared Golden. This cycle we're being extra-careful. Do you think there's any chance Rebecca Parson will ever sell out? Look at that twitter page: "Queer democratic socialist running for Congress in WA-06. No corporate or lobbyist money. Fighting for a home for us all-- not just the wealthiest few." I guarantee you she's not joining the Blue Dogs or New Dems. In fact, the mealy-mouthed conservative she'd be replacing is Derek Kilmer, the head of the New Dems. And speaking of Twitter... do you follow Nate McMurray? If not, you should. He's running in one of the reddest districts in the whole northwest and instead of running as the Republican-lite Blue Dog that the DCCC wants, he's on Twitter every day extolling progressive policies and beating up on Trump and his congressional enablers.

And look at this brief inter-change in the comments section between an anonymous commenter and Rachel Ventura, another kick-ass progressive taking on another mealy-mouthed New Dem (Bill Foster):

Anonymous said...

Rachel may sound nice, but she can in no way ever be better than the house tyrant that she shall endorse -- Pelosi -- who is pure unadulterated corrupt fascist shit.

vote for Rachel if you feel the need. But do it with open eyes. The best you can hope for is that Pelosi and the democrap party won't be much worse than they've/she's been for the past 2 generations.

6:10 PM
 Unknown said...

Why are you assuming I would endorse Pelosi? I would like to see a progressive run for leadership and would support that person.

Brianna Wu knows how to stand up to the alt-right-- and she's already shown us how it's done. She was targeted by Steve Bannon and his cronies during the Gamergate controversy, which later became the Trump playbook. She suffered through numerous death and rape threats, stalking, brick being thrown through her window, threats against her family... you name it. Instead of backing down, she spoke out about the misogynistic treatment of women in the tech industry. And now she's running for Congress, against a conservative New Dem, in part to hold tech companies accountable for facilitating cyberbullying and to create cybersecurity standards to protect consumer and voter information online. All that takes courage-- and Brianna personifies it.

To Arizona progressive Eva Putzova the seemingly impossible is just another challenge. And it makes sense if you consider that she is part of the generation that knocked down the walls and overthrew the totalitarian regime in 1989 in former Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution. She ran for and was elected to the Flagstaff City Council in 2014 as an avowed progressive when even many so-called "liberals"  doubted she could win that way. When informed initially by some attorneys that Arizona state law prohibited cities from establishing their own minimum wage, she researched the law herself, discovered they were wrong, and initiated a lawsuit that was victorious. She had the guts to take on the State of Arizona and challenge the legislative overreach. She led a successful initiative campaign to raise the minimum wage in Flagstaff to $15 per hour with virtually no support from the established electeds who were unsure of the outcome and unwilling to stick their necks out. Then when the Chamber of Commerce and its allied dark-money groups, including the Koch Brothers, sought to repeal the initiative, she defeated that effort as well by mobilizing the community to defend what they had just voted to approve. During these struggles, she was subjected to verbal and written abuse, xenophobic attacks on her accent, desecration of her campaign materials, and other threats. Some of this has continued since she announced she was running for Congress in AZ-01, daring to challenge a Blue Dog incumbent-- a corporate 'Democrat' who votes with Trump 40% of the time. Her opponents have included some privileged Democrats as well as Republican defenders of the status quo. She has faced this adversity by working harder, winning over voters, increasing her public profile, building a truly grassroots campaign operation and affirming her values of peace, justice, inclusion, and equality for all. Here at DWT and anyone watching in AZ-01, her courage is there for all to see.

Mark Gamba, is the progressive mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon and he's facing off against reactionary Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. "It's hard, he told me yesterday, "to run against an incumbent who is a millionaire and who takes stacks of cash from every evil corporation there is. It's doubly hard to continue working as an unpaid mayor, while running a full time congressional campaign and having to raise money the hard way: $27 at a time, from the people. Also imagine being a freshman congressman with no power, realizing that you have 10 years to stop climate change. The only way a freshman Congressman can have much effect is to break the rules, to be loud, to expose the lies and the  hypocrisy. In other words to buck the status quo and to piss off the most powerful people in the world. Even the Democratic Party is an obstacle, the DCCC issuing an edict to keep campaign workers away. The difficulty and expense of simply getting the voter files. The myriad of campaign rules designed to tilt the playing field towards the incumbents and the wealthy. The very real likelihood that when I start showing well in the polls they will attack me personally and attempt to smear my character. But what choice do we have? If we continue in the current system, the people that will almost always end up in Congress are the ones that will never solve the problems, because they, or someone very much like them are the ones that caused the problems in the 1st place. The system is broken, if we hope to save our democracy and our planet's very ability to support life, we will have to break the current system."

Kim Williams, a professor and former Obama era diplomat, is running against an entrenched Blue Dog the DCCC back, Jim Costa. "If Democrats are working on healthcare, jobs creation, and anti-corruption, you wouldn’t know it here," she told me today. "They take the same money from the same corporations as Republicans and this all leads to the same outcome. Billionaire growers get tax breaks and subsidies while working families struggle to survive. Jim Costa continues to cater to the wishes of the few over the needs of the many. Even in this solid blue district, he did not want to ruffle wealthy, conservative feathers. It took two-thirds of his peers to sign on for impeachment before he would join in, and even then he left mention of this vote out of his newsletter. When challenged, he always referenced the polling data. Not once did he speak to whether this was simply the right thing to do. These talking points point to a party that is more concerned with promises that keep them in power than real results to help their base. Now, more than ever, we need representatives with the political courage to speak truth to power and stand up for what’s right. These talking points don’t match reality, and voters can see right through it."

Wake County pastor, Jason Butler is running in a rural red district that Democrats usually give a pass to; that's brave in itself. But that's hardly the beginning. When we first met he told me how, when he was living in Milwaukee, he was part of a community organizing effort that stood up to 5 major banks for their role in the foreclosure crisis. He stood before 1,000 people and elected officials and bank executives and demanded they put an end to their practices that were destroying under-resourced neighborhoods and make a $20 million commitment to re-invest in those neighborhoods. I doubt he learned that in pastor-school. And, a pastor, he publicly stood up to the UMC for their decision to exclude LGBTQ individuals from full access and organized a rally to fight for full inclusion, organizing a group-- Sacred Witness-- to continue the fight for full inclusion. He's probably even better known as the white pastor who openly talks about the affects of racism and systematic oppression and exclusion of communities of color in rural North Carolina-- especially how the industrial prison complex has functioned as a new Jim Crow to intentionally disrupt and destabilize the African-American community. When I first interviewed him for an endorsement he told me he'll "strive to always stand for justice for the marginalized and pushed aside. Society has handed me great privilege as a white male and I am committed to using that to fight for equality, justice, and the common good-- not just to gain more power for myself."

How To Write A Good Fundraising E-Mail, Episode 1

I'm going to start a new feature tonight. We all get way too many e-mails from candidates asking for money, right?. Many of them are created by over-priced, under-talented communications consultants with messaging straight from the two-legged jokes who work at the DCCC, DNC and DSCC. I tend to recognize the worst of the garbage either from the subject line or by the layout or, if not sooner, by the first sentence. More often than not, I just unsubscribe. But the e-mails never seem to slow down, do they?

Once in a while, a candidate sends me an e-mail that's actually worth reading, one that gives the readers a sense of who that candidate actually is and what they will fight for and who they will fight for when they get to Congress. Our new DWT feature will be to run some of the best of those fundraising e-mails. I hope they set an example for other candidates of how to do it-- and I hope some readers feel moved to contribute or to at least decide to look further into the candidates.

The first one is from the Blue American-endorsed congressional candidate in NC-02, Jason Butler, a progressive Wake County pastor in a district that spans suburbs and large rural swathes of northern North Carolina. Here's what he sent out about a week or so ago. If you like it and you would like to see Jason replace right-wing Trump enabler and sock-puppet George Holding in Congress, please consider contributing to Jason's campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America thermometer on the right, even if it's just $5 or $10. That's how candidates build successful campaigns-- $5 and $10 donations at a time.

Howard,

Recently, my wife and I went to Pride Fest here in Durham, NC. My church had a booth there and I wanted to show my support. I didn’t campaign. I just wanted to be a regular guy supporting the LGBTQ+ community. But I saw someone I know who asked me about the campaign, and he told me how tired he is of politics: the climate emergency, friends without healthcare, the impeachment proceedings. He said people were at the festival protesting his very existence. He told me, “I just want to run away.”

We’re all exhausted. The last few years have felt like a decade. But I’ll tell you what I told him: we just can’t give up. I’m reminded of a quote I recently read from Bobby Kennedy which says, “Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened…we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”

Y’all, I know we’ve been through a lot. But we just can’t turn our heads right now. There is too much at stake. We have to act. The future depends on good people standing up for justice.

One way to act is to give to a candidate who you believe in. Someone you know will fight for you and for all those who are suffering.

Will you join our people-powered campaign by making a contribution of $20 or more today? This will give us momentum, allow us to fight for the needs of everyday Americans like you, and reach out to voters who are waiting for a candidate who will fight for them.

I hope I can count on your support.

Thanks a ton!

—Jason

Trump Is Abandoning Family Farms. Will Family Farmers Abandon Trump?

Trump doesn't own a dog; he doesn't understand that relationship. In fact, he hates animals. And he laughs at farmers-- even if was, after all, rural counties that made him president. The AP reported that on Tuesday Trump's Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, a longtime wealthy exploiter of family farmers, went to a town hall type of event at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin where he told reporters that the government isn't interested in propping up small family famers any longer. "In America," he said, "the big get bigger and the small go out. I don't think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability."

Perdue's visit comes as Wisconsin dairy farmers are wrestling with a host of problems, including declining milk prices, rising suicide rates, the transition to larger farms with hundreds or thousands of animals and Trump's international trade wars.

Wisconsin, which touts itself as America's Dairyland on its license plates, has lost 551 dairy farms in 2019 after losing 638 in 2018 and 465 in 2017, according to data from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The Legislature's finance committee voted unanimously last month to spend an additional $200,000 to help struggling farmers deal with depression and mental health problems.

Jerry Volenec, a fifth generation Wisconsin dairy farmer with 330 cows, left the Perdue event feeling discouraged about his future.

"What I heard today from the secretary of agriculture is there's no place for me," Volenec told reporters. "Can I get some support from my state and federal government? I feel like we're a benefit to society."

Getting bigger at the expense of smaller operations like his is "not a good way to go," said Darin Von Ruden, president of Wisconsin Farmers Union and a third generation dairy farmer who runs a 50-cow organic farm.

"Do we want one corporation owning all the food in our country?" he said to reporters.

Perdue said he believes the 2018 farm bill should help farmers stay afloat. The bill reauthorizes agriculture and conservation programs at a rough cost of $400 billion over five years or $867 billion over 10 years. But he warned that small farms will still struggle to compete.

"It's very difficult on an economy of scale with the capital needs and all the environmental regulations and everything else today to survive milking 40, 50, or 60 or even 100 cows," he said.

Perdue held a town hall meeting with farmers and agricultural groups to kick off the expo. The former Georgia governor seemed to charm the crowd with his southern accent and jokes about getting swiped in the face by a cow's tail.

Jeff Lyon, general manager for FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative in Madison, asked Perdue for his thoughts on Trump's trade war with China.

Trump's administration has long accused China of unfair trade practices and has imposed escalating rounds of tariffs on Chinese imports to press for concessions. The administration alleges that Beijing steals and forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes Chinese companies and engages in cyber-theft of intellectual property. China's countermoves have been especially hard on American farmers because they target U.S. agricultural exports.

According to a September analysis by the U.S. Dairy Export Council, U.S. dairy solids exports to China fell by 43 percent overall in the 11 months starting in July 2018, when China enacted the first round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. dairy products. About 3.7 billion pounds of U.S. farmers' milk had to find other markets during that span, the analysis found.

Chinese leaders have said they're ready to talk but will take whatever steps are necessary to protect their rights.

Perdue responded to Lyon's question by calling the Chinese "cheaters."

"They toyed us into being more dependent on their markets than them on us. That's what the problem has been," he said. "They can't expect to come into our country freely and fairly without opening up their markets."

The secretary said the Trump administration is working to expand other international markets, including targeting India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia. He said he had expected Congress to ratify a new trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada to replace NAFTA but noted that Washington has been distracted over the last few days, an allusion to impeachment proceedings against Trump ramping up last week.

I asked some of the Blue America-endorsed candidates in districts with big rural constituencies how this kind of thinking plays out. We've been discussing this with North Carolina progressive pastor and candidate (NC-02) Jason Butler all cycle. This morning he reiterated what he's been campaigning on. "Alas, the Republican policy is revealed: push out the small business farmer and support big corporations. Counter to their 'small government' rhetoric this is their policy as they are beholden to big donors, big corporations, and big special interests. Nearly every Saturday I go out to local farmers markets in my district and I see small farm after small farm creating entrepenurial farm to table business models that are helping to meet the demands of our growing families. Farmers are the backbone of our nation and we need to create policies that support both big and small farmers. No Mr. Perdue, you are wrong. This is America and there is a future for everyone here and we will work to reverse your damaging ego-driven trade policies to ensure a flourishing future for every farmer-- no matter how big or small.

Maggie Toulouse Oliver is running for the Senate in a largely rural state, New Mexico. "The Trump Administration," she told me, "is giving up on family farmers. That's not acceptable. Cattle, pecans, green chile-- you name it, we've got a family in New Mexico working the land to raise it or grow it to put food on other people's tables. Family farms are a key part of New Mexico's heritage and economy. You better believe that when I'm in the Senate, I will fight to help New Mexico farmers and ranchers."

J.D. Scholten is running for Congress in Iowa's most rural district, Steve King's beleaguered IA-04. The district is 75% rural and gave Trump a 60.9% to 33.5% win over Hillary. The soy bean farmers in his district know better than anyone that Trump has destroyed the soy bean market forever and that it's never coming back. They voted for Trump and he ruined their lives.

J.D. told us that "King has left behind the renewable fuel folks for years. It didn’t shock anyone when he endorsed one of the biggest anti-ethanol folks in D.C., Ted Cruz, for president in 2016. The corn growers and the renewable fuels industry are looking for solutions and leaders. If we are going to get carbon-neutral or decarbon, renewable fuels are a part of that equation. But instead, Trump’s EPA is rewarding oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron with RFS waivers, saving them hundreds of millions of dollars while corn growers and folks who work in the renewable fuels industry are struggling just to get by. Trump and his cronies like King will keep lining the wallets of the oil industry at the expense of our farmers." Yesterday, after Perdue's bone-headed remarks, J.D. put out a press release with a sharp title: "Secretary Perdue's Comments Are 'Middle Finger' To Family Farmers." He said that "Dairy farmers across the country have been struggling. For Secretary Perdue to say that there’s ‘no guarantee’ that small dairy farms will survive is essentially giving the middle finger to family farmers. In reality, it’s policy that dictates their survival. If we continue allowing agriculture monopolies to dictate the markets, we will continue down this dangerous path of consolidation. If we enforce our antitrust laws, we will give farmers a chance."

Progressive activist Kathy Ellis is taking Trump lapdog Jason Smith on this cycle and she told me that "In the past year, Missouri has seen a 96% increase in farm bankruptcies. Our local economy is suffering in the 8th District, and while Jason Smith visits farmers and takes pictures on his 'farm tour,' he isn't working towards any real, sustainable solutions for our agricultural economy. Perhaps Rep. Smith could have less photo opps and instead ask farmers what they'd like to see change in the district. They know best, and Smith has continually ignored them to instead be a rubber stamp for Trump's damaging policies. Farmers are forced to choose between continuing in the work that they love and providing for their families. All of this, combined with Big Agriculture taking over many of the once local-run farms, has hurt our local economy. While many farmers supported Trump in 2016, many are now telling us that Trump's policies are hurting them. Many are losing hope."

Nate McMurray is the progressive Democrat running in the big rural/suburban district in western New York where Trump's best friend in Congress, Chris Collins just resigned and plead guilty to being a slimy swamp creature. Nate noted today that "Trump is killing the very places that voted for him. The people of NY27 trusted him, and he’s taken that trust and used it on trade wars and a failed immigration policy that hurts our farmers. We are in an emergency situation."

Teresa Tomlinson, until very recently the mayor of Macon, is very aware of the Perdue family. She's running for the Georgia U.S. Senate seat held by the other one, David Perdue. She noted that Sonny's "recent comments make clear what we already knew: Trump and his administration don’t give a rip about family farms and the critical role they play in feeding America and the entire world. After DC dysfunction prevented Hurricane Michael disaster relief aid from reaching those hardest hit by the storm for more than 200 days, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue literally added insult to injury when he called family farmers whiners and made clear the Trump administration has no intention of helping to level the playing field for family farmers when corporate Agribusiness continues to gobble up more and more of the market and push out multi-generational family farms."

Audrey Denney's opponent is Trump enabler Doug LaMalfa in the northeast corner of California, one of the most rural districts in California. She told us that "the Trump Administration policies are directly hurting farmers all over the country. According to the American Farm Bureau, farm bankruptcy filings for 2019 through June were up 13 percent from 2018 and loan delinquency rates are on the rise. North State farmers are asking for trade policies that expand markets and immigration reform that helps them get the labor they need. Congressman LaMalfa-- a farmer himself-- has failed to be an advocate for the industry he represents. I’ve worked in agriculture education my entire career and can’t wait to fight for North State farmers and ranchers when they send me to DC... Every year it becomes harder and harder for farmer and ranchers to make their work pencil. Tariffs are adding increasing pressure on farmers’ already razor thin profit margins-- add this to an inability to find and retain skilled labor-- and many North State farmers are really hurting. Every multi-generational family famers’ nightmare is being the generation that loses the farm. My family lived that reality with the 2008 recession-- this is a personal issue for me."

This is also something specifically addressed by Bernie in his platform: Policies Leveling the Playing Field for Farmers and Farmworkers. "Corporate control over agriculture: We need to address corporate consolidation and control of our food and agriculture system-- all the way up the food chain from seed companies; fruit, vegetable, and grain growers; food processors; food distributors; and grocery chains. When markets become too concentrated, they begin to act more like monopolies than free markets."

• Enact and enforce Roosevelt-style trust-busting laws to stop monopolization of markets and break-up existing massive agribusinesses; Place a moratorium on future mergers of large agribusiness corporations and break-up existing massive agribusinesses. According to Food & Water Watch, “consolidation in the pork packing industry has contributed to the 82% decline in the number of hog farms in Iowa between 1982 and 2007.” In our country, just four companies slaughter 85% of beef cattle. USDA reports that between 2000 and 2015 "soybean sales from the largest four sellers rose from 51 to 76%." Additionally, after the Bayer-Monsanto merger, the two largest conglomerates now control 78% of the corn seed market. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, you know what he would say to these behemoth agribusiness companies: He would say, break them up. And, working together, that is exactly what we are going to do.
• Place a moratorium on vertical integration of large agribusiness corporations. As Food & Water Watch details “Pork packers often secure livestock through contract marketing arrangements with farmers. Farmers agree to deliver a certain number of hogs at a future date. These contracts give farmers a guaranteed market for their hogs, but large contract buyers can extract lower prices and distort and conceal prices.” According to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, 42% of hogs and 96% of chickens in the US were grown under production contracts where the farmer never owns the animal. We must impose an immediate moratorium on agribusiness mergers.
• Reestablish and strengthen the Grain Inspectors, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), the agency that oversees antitrust in the packing industry. Lobbyists and the Trump administration have gutted GIPSA and blocked rules helping farmers. As the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition details, “The 2008 Farm Bill required USDA to write regulations to empower GIPSA to provide basic protections for farmers who do business with these companies. But when USDA tried to write the regulations, the meat and poultry industries launched a full-scale attack to get GOP lawmakers to pass appropriations riders to block USDA from finalizing those farmer protections.” Working together, we will restore the agency that enforces antitrust laws in the meatpacking industry-- an agency that Trump eliminated.
• Ensure farmers have the Right to Repair their own equipment. In rural America today, farmers can’t even repair their own tractors or other equipment because of the greed of companies like John Deere. As noted in Wired Magazine, “Farmers can’t change engine settings, can’t retrofit old equipment with new features, and can’t modify their tractors to meet new environmental standards on their own” without going through an authorized repair agent. When we are in the White House, we will pass a national right-to-repair law that gives every farmer in America full rights over the machinery they buy.
• Reform patent law to protect farmers from predatory patent lawsuits from seed corporations. We cannot continue to allow Monsanto to control 80% of U.S. corn and more than 90% of U.S. soybean seed patents – a situation that has only gotten worse after the Trump administration approved Monsanto’s disastrous merger with Bayer. We are going to reform our patent laws to protect farmers from predatory patent lawsuits from companies like Monsanto.
• Change regulations to improve markets for family farms-- Strengthen organic standards so behemoth agribusinesses cannot circumvent rules and cut out small producers who make investments in their communities and environment. We must begin by reversing the erosion of standards in recent years. According to the Organic Trade Association, The organic food market is now a $50 billion market, and over the last five years, the organic-food business has grown 10% annually, and makes up about 6% of the total food sold in America. The Trump administration has been working to rescind organic rules that organic farmers want. Those certification rules strengthen the sales pitch of organic products to consumers. When we are in the White House, we will undo this damage.
• Allow meat slaughtered at a state-inspected facility to be sold across state lines. Foreign meat that has “equivalent” inspection standards as our federal standards can be sold across state lines freely in the United States, while state inspected beef cannot, even when those state standards meet or exceed federal standards. This puts domestic producers at a disadvantage. We must level the playing field.

Fair trade deals: Our current trade policies encourage overproduction and push low-cost commodities on foreign countries, effectively undercutting and destroying local agricultural systems while enriching multinational corporations. Our agricultural trade policies should not threaten the domestic food security of the U.S. or any of our trading partners.

• Classify food supply security as a national security issue. We need trade policies that safeguard food security at home and around the globe. Over 800 million people worldwide are affected by undernourishment or food deprivation, including millions of small farmers threatened by climate change, volatile prices, and unfair trade practices. By 2050, food demand is expected to grow by 60% while at the same time the amount of arable land is estimated to shrink due to climate change, urbanization, and soil degradation. We’ve already seen how food insecurity and conflict are linked in ongoing famines in East Africa, South Sudan, and Yemen. When we are in the White House, food supply security will be the core of our national security.
• Develop fair trade partnerships that do not drive down the prices paid to food producers and that, instead, protect farmers here and abroad.
• Enforce country-of-origin-labeling so companies cannot import foreign meat for slaughter, passing it off as American grown to undercut domestic producers. Unfair trade policy has let foreign countries overturn our country-of-origin-labeling laws even though 90% of the American people support country-of-origin labeling. We must respect the will of the people and allow them to know where their food is coming from.

Ensure a fair price for family farmers: Independent family farms have been decimated by past and current farm policies, in the pursuit of short-run economic efficiency. The food security of the nation still depends on farmers on family-scale farms who are committed to being good stewards of the land and good citizens of their communities and nation.

• Enact supply management programs to prevent shortages and surpluses to ensure farmers make a living wage and ensure consumers receive a high-quality, stable, and secure supply of agricultural goods.
• Re-establish a national grain and feed reserve to help alleviate the need for government subsidies and ensure we have a food supply in case of extreme weather events. As we saw with the most recent flooding in the Midwest, we can lose a huge amount of agricultural land and goods in a single weather event.
• Reform agricultural subsidies so that more federal support goes to small- and mid-sized family farms, rather than that support going disproportionately to a handful of the largest producers.
• Transition toward a parity system to guarantee farmers a living wage. That means setting price floors and matching supply with demand so farmers are guaranteed the cost of production and family living expenses. • Pass comprehensive disaster coverage and allocate payments to independent family farming operations.
• Provide relief to help prevent independent family farm bankruptcies, which in areas like the Midwest are at their highest level in a decade.
• Help beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers get fair access to land and resources. When the average age of farmers is 58 and 95% of farmers are white, we need to help new farmers transition on to the land and ensure farming is a viable profession to support their families.
• Strengthen oversight of foreign acquisitions of American farmland in order to prevent that farmland from being controlled by foreign governments and foreign corporations. According to the New Food Economy, “the most recent figures from USDA show that roughly 25 million acres, about 2% of our national total of 930,000,000 acres, are in foreign hands. And the pace of investment seems to be picking up.” This is a national security issue and we must treat it like one.
• Invest in beginning farmers to purchase land and equipment for sustainable farming.
• Allocate government funding to purchase easements to ensure land stays in agriculture.
• Incentivize community ownership of farmland to allow more people to work the land and produce food for local consumers.
• Make government owned farmland available as incubator farms for beginning farmers.
• Incentivize programs-- including 4H, extension programs, or others-- to ensure diversity of age, race, gender, ability, and sexual orientation so we begin to eradicate systems and cultures that prevent fair access to agricultural land and opportunities. In 2017, 95% of all farmers accounted for were white, with black farmers reporting ownership declining at ten times the rate it did for white farmers. That’s on top of Black farmers losing 80% of their land between 1910 and 2007, in no small part due to systematic discrimination. Today only about 5% of black farmers reporting earning over $50,000, compared to 15% of white farmers.. 52% of American women farmers said they felt gender discrimination. When we are in the White House we will eradicate discrimination in agricultural land and opportunities.

Rebuild regional agricultural infrastructure: Past and current policies that support large corporate infrastructure have destroyed small and medium scale agricultural and food processing infrastructure in rural communities.

• Fund development of local, independent processing, aggregation, and distribution facilities.
• Incentivize rural cooperative business models and utilities, such as rural electric cooperatives, food co-ops, and credit unions. In 2009, of the 2.2 million total farms in this country, 2,389 were farm co-operatives. What we know is that when employees have an ownership stake in their company they will be more productive and they will earn a better living.