Democratic Party overlooking the farmers next door

Lower taxes, smaller government of Republican Party sounds better than nothing

While Democratic Party members are still trying to figure out what went wrong in this month’s elections, they maybe should look no further than the farm next door.  

Because farmers and nearly every other potential rural voter no longer feels attached to the party says Mike McCabe, founder of Blue Jean Nation in Wisconsin.

“I think, even where they do make an effort to field candidates,” McCabe said, “they haven’t put much focus on rural areas, and they’ve really lost touch with working-class voters in general, especially those living in small towns or out in the country.”

McCabe believes that rural voters are increasingly leaning Republican simply because they feel abandoned by the Democratic Party they once overwhelmingly supported.

“They’re not addressing the problems that rural communities face,” McCabe said. “Their agenda is not focused on trying to help rural American and that agenda has been noticed.”

With that, the answer is apparently quite simple.

“They figure,” McCabe said, ” ‘Well, we might as well just keep government as small as possible and our taxes as low as possible. If our taxes aren’t going to help us, then what the heck? Let’s shrink the size of government.’ “

And that hasn’t gone unnoticed by those frustrated at seeing all of their taxes going to Washington, D.C., or Madison, Wis., and then never coming back to their small communities.

So that, McCabe said, plays into the hands of the Republican Party, which has successfully branded itself as the party of lower taxes and smaller government.