July, 2019
Washington -- A good thing for our country, right now, would be for The Squad and their progressive friends to get out into rural America, listen to the voices of the heartland, and come up with solid ideas to solve urgent rural problems. It would help heal, rather than divide, the country.
In preparation, they, like all of us, should bone up on our American history, especially the central role rural forces played in creating the progressive movement: Grangers opposing monopolies; Bryan's Cross of Gold speech; the Farmers Alliance; "Fighting Bob," the progressive Republican, rooting out corruption; the miners' coal strike of 1902; Bryan's advocacy of women's suffrage. Simply put, the American progressive movement has deep roots in rural America.
What would today's rural voices tell The Squad? Here's what:
We want trade, not aid; our topsoil is disappearing; monopolies are turning farmers into serfs; we are suffering from obesity and diabetes epidemics; climate change is threatening our productivity; our pollinators are rapidly diminishing; our rural hospitals are closing; our communities are emptying; our children are leaving; our way of life seems about at an end.
What could progressives like The Squad offer to solve today's problems, in the tradition of the origins of the American progressive movement?
• Return trade and tariff policy to Congress, which is where the Constitution places it; deal with China through international allies, not through trade wars that make farmers choose between their farms and their patriotism;
• Revise the Farm Bill immediately to fund conservation, soil health, habitat protection, and carbon capture, not wasteful bailouts for failed trade policies;
• Break up agricultural monopolies, including international monopolies, that dictate to American producers everything from what kinds of seeds they are allowed to plant to how they are allowed to market their products;
• Improve nutrition to fight obesity and diabetes through farm-to-school and farm-to-institution efforts, and create local and regional markets for fresh, healthy foods that bypass food cartels; re-invigorate the Smith-Lever Act to make improved nutrition a priority in every county.
• Build jobs in rural America out of the productivity and promise of the land, diversifying agriculture and its markets so as to build demand for both labor and for entrepreneurship; provide affordable health insurance and Internet access to assure it can happen.
Many in the modern Democratic Party, and especially many commentators in today's media, have the odd and mistaken impression that rural America has no progressive tradition and that progressive ideas to solve its problems would not be welcome there. My take is exactly the opposite: many in rural America are desperately pleading with the Democratic Party to turn its attention back to its progressive rural roots and to compete once again for votes based on solid, decent policies, based on listening to voices in the heartland.
Squad: will you do it?
