General Discussion

The other side of the immigration "coin" is the ease with which Capital can move across borders - unlike Labor. That means if China is not importing soybeans from the United States, the money behind the soybean industry will simply move to Brazil, if it is Brazil where soybeans are being grown.

The notion that US farmers will experience "FAFO" maybe emotionally satisfying but not supported by the facts. Do farmers - farm owners - trend Republican? Of course. All owners do. But there are not enough farmers to affect elections, even in heavily agricultural districts. The big capital controlling the food industry is not constrained by any borders.

The supposed farm vote that the Republicans have a lock on is all an illusion. It's a bunch of Walter Mittys fantasizing and identifying with various stereotypes: the pioneer, the cowboy, the lumberjack, the rancher and the farmer. The Republicans know how to play on those fantasies - W. Bush with his phony ranch, Reagan on horseback, and Trump with all his macho imagery.

Here in a heavily agricultural district there are approximately 300 or so farm owners. But Trump picked up 30,000 votes here. When JD Vance was holding a rally nearby, he went on and on talking smack about agriculture, how Trump was going to help farmers by rounding up immigrants and imposing tariffs, which of course is absolute nonsense. Those moves hurt farmers. But the thousands of people in that crowd cheered and cheered. "Yeah! We're on the side of the farmers! We're real Americans! Rugged pioneer stock yippee ki yay!" I doubt there were many growers in that audience at all.