23 May 2019 — 1746 mdt
Farmers who voted for Trump should not be
compensated for their losses caused by his trade wars
President Trump, surrounded by MAGA-hatted farmers, today announced a $16 billion program to compensate farmers who are suffering financial losses resulting from his gratuitous trade war with China. This doubtless makes many farmers, including those smart enough not to have voted for him, happy.
It doesn’t make me happy.
As far as I’m concerned, the plowboys who buried their common sense in the manure pile and marked the ballot for Trump are reaping what they sowed, and should not be deprived of the harvest of their folly. They should be publicly repenting their votes and demanding an end to the trade war. Instead, they’re wearing red hats, praising Trump, and demanding that he send them cash to compensate for their bad judgment at the ballot box.
This is insane.
Writing in today’s Washington Post, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, no fan of Trump, reported that Sen. Jon Tester confirmed that despite being walloped on their noggins with the two-by-four of tariffs, Trump’s voters still have not come to their senses:
During our conversation, Tester told me that Trump voters impacted by tariffs aren’t yet furious with the president over tariffs, or at least they don’t say so. “Maybe internally” they’re fretting, but Tester said the breaking point may come in the fall “when the bills are due.”
Don’t bet on the breaking point ever coming as long as these Trump supporting farmers can vote against their enlightened self-interest and then be protected from their folly by government bribes.