‘We Believe Him’: Desperate Farmers Blame USDA – Not Trump – For Their Problems
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 09/10/2019
Of all President Trump’s critical constituencies, none have been asked to sacrifice as much as America’s farmers. Many midwestern farmers were already in a difficult spot when President Trump first came on the scene, hammered by low crop prices and farms teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
But in the nearly three years since Trump’s inauguration, the situation for most farmers has gone from bad to worse. In retaliation for President Trump’s trade war, China has cut off imports of American soybeans. And even Trump’s farm bailouts haven’t quite made up for the damage to the midwestern economy that has occurred under his administration.
Despite this, most farmers remain loyal to Trump, and plan to vote for him again in 2020. Instead, Reuters reports, many farmers are directing their anger not at the Trump Administration, but at the USDA and the Washington bureaucracy, which believe is working to thwart President Trump’s true agenda.
Unfounded conspiracy theories have reportedly been circulating online and among farmers that the USDA is the true source of American farmers’ financial malaise. This has led to farmers threatening a USDA employees during a crop study earlier this year, prompting the agency to withdraw its personnel from the field.
According to a Reuters poll, Trump’s approval rating in rural areas has fallen slightly to 71% from a peak of 79%. Still, many farmers are struggling to “emotionally process” their pain.
Farmers are struggling with how to emotionally process their pain from the Trump administration’s policies, and anger at the USDA may be a coping mechanism, said Ted Matthews, a Minnesota psychologist who has spent 30 years counseling farmers and rural residents across the Midwest.
“The question I hear from farmers who voted for (Trump) is, ‘We believed him when he said he would help make the farm economy better, that we could save our farms. Now, who do we blame?'” Matthews said.
The Rest…HERE
