Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Don’t Bern the Dems’ Hopes

“Please. Bernie. Don’t!” nnIt was the day after “The Bern” made his announcement, and the day when the Usually Wednesday Quartet meets for lunch. Those words came from the violist as she entered my kitchen.

Surprisingly, the two violins immediately joined her in a big groan. “No kidding.” “How could he?” And I (cello) added, “Unless …”

I was about to ladle out the soup. I motioned everyone to get their bowls, leaving “Unless …” hanging in the air. My house, my rules. Wednesday is my usual fun day.

And, let’s face it, ordinary humans can’t do anything to prevent or to hustle Bernie’s candidacy into reality. He is surrounded by powerful voices, including his inner one, urging him on. And, we’re a long way from the primaries and the conventions that will determine our candidates.

But if Bernie wins the candidacy, and he continues to run, he’ll toss the presidency right back to Trump. The Midwest will have to choose between two New Yorkers, and the Midwest will choose the Strong Man every time.

Yes, I know that Sanders claims rural allegiance. He lives in Vermont, where he moved because he was “captivated by rural life,” and I know he was a carpenter among other jobs — filmmaker and creator of educational materials — before moving into politics, but, let’s face it, Vermont isn’t corn-and-beans like the Midwest. It’s more like fancy maple syrup, not the kind with corn syrup and maple flavoring.

Bernie looks and sounds like a New Yorker, and that won’t win votes here. Trump is like us — fat and rumpled and addicted to cheeseburgers. And Trump looks and sounds like us, and his prowling back and forth on the stage, clapping his hands, Vanna-White-style, reminds us of the cheerleaders at our high school football games. And he keeps on hitting ’til he gets stuff done, just like our Republican state lawmakers. Can’t get the money for a wall through Congress? Declare a national emergency. If that doesn’t work, try something else. We admire that.

While we might agree with some of Bernie’s ideas, we Midwesterners won’t admit it. Universal health care? That sounds like somebody else picking our doctors. Cutting military spending? That sounds like blocking the one sure path our kids have after high school. Pro-choice? There ya go: he’s a baby killer.

While all those objections sound silly to the progressive populist, Bernie won’t carry the votes in the Midwest, and let’s not forget how the Electoral College works. Here’s where the Democrats need to build power.

And how would this be done?

First of all, the candidate needs to bring new, money-making ideas to farmers. Rural America is hurting — really hurting. With most commodities selling at below-production prices, meaning that the farmers and bankers are putting more money into the crops than they get out of them, people are reluctantly admitting that farmers are overproducing. And that means overproducing everything from row crops to meat and dairy from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. There are a few out-of-the-box thinkers tentatively promoting more planning for the rural economy.

In the past, overproduction has led to ridiculous strategies for creating new products such as ethanol and bio-diesel from surplus corn and beans. Never mind that we spend as much, fossil-fuel and chemical-wise, as we get back in fuels. The point is that we can build something huge and impressive — an industrial plant in a corn field — to make the new product. Something big and shiny.

But the big-and-shiny stuff has run its course and we’re tired of getting teased into unworkable ideas. At church and in the Quik Shop, some brave souls are pointing to Canada as a model of planning and sustainability. Could those ideas pull a Democratic candidate over the finish line? They’d have to begin by being a good listener, and hearing what our farmers and bankers say, then working that into their message.

A strong, attractive female candidate could energize the Midwest. While she’d first have to earn credibility with the corn-and-beans farmer set, she could bring out our urban and suburban voters. 2020 will be the 100th anniversary of suffrage for women, so our issues could get new traction. The candidate might even talk about fiscal responsibility, even cutting military spending, in terms of saving the economy from a total meltdown. A woman could win and there are plenty of them running.

And, this is where my soup-centered “unless” comes in, meaning that we shouldn’t write off Bernie’s entry into the 2020 campaign as inevitably heading for a total quagmire. Bernie’s running could be a good thing, energizing the kiddos to get out and work for him. And it would be an especially good thing IF, and this is a big IF, he loses at the convention and throws his weight, wholeheartedly, into another, dare I say a younger, person’s candidacy.

Enough. The soup’s getting cold, so let’s leave the politics aside! There is a gooey dessert in the oven and we have Mendohlsson to play. Time to forget about Bernie and have some fun!

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2019

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