Spend time with people who supported Presidential Candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and quickly discover that the reasons why they voted for Trump had little to do with him.
It is probably one of the most misunderstood threads between this new conservative populist coalition. To get the real reasons for your support for Trump, you have to be where they are, have no preconceived ideas about who they are and have no prejudices for what you think their motives are.
Tom Schaub, Ralph Petersheim, Donna Leum, Kris Amundson and Ben Klinkner are seated around a large conference table at Westby's Creamery Cooperative in the city of Vernon County. There is a coffee maker and a large box of donuts. The aroma that only fresh baked donuts can provide radiation in any room.
All four are milk producers. Schaub is president of the cooperative. Petersheim was recognized for his land and water conservation efforts by the county, which earned him the outstanding prize of conservation farmer for his impeccable land efforts. The Leum family owns a dairy of 53 cows and their two adult children are found in different aspects of the dairy industry. The Amundson family produces £ 17,200 of milk per cow per year for the cooperative. Klinkner is a sixth generation farmer in his family's organic dairy.
All are members of the board of directors of a cooperative that was formed over 117 years ago by families of local dairies looking for a way to develop a sustainable market for their milk and dairy products in their dairy.
Individually, they are superhuman. Not only do the dawn hours work until nightfall to offer you cheese, yogurt, milk, sour cream and any other dairy treatment that fills the refrigerators (cows are milked twice a day every day of the year); they are devoted soil and water environmentalists and are tireless volunteers who dedicate countless hours to the 4-H club, local schools, their churches and the cooperative council.
Everyone said that their vote for Trump was not for him but for their communities.
It was an abstract and complicated decision that rarely makes sense for people who don't walk in their shoes, live in their zip code or understand how long the establishments on both sides have disappointed them, their parents, their grandparents and their children. below.
"People who don't know peasants or who live near or in an agricultural community don't have a clue why we feel so connected to our place," said Leum. "But they seem to have strong opinions about who we are, and when they find out we support Trump, they look at us like that silly peasant who knows nothing better."
"Well, those stupid farmers are electricians. They are plumbers. They are mechanics, scientists, environmentalists. They take care of the crops that fill their closets, (they) love and take care of the animals that supply dairy products and meat for the their parties. They are also vets. and engineers, "he says with pride and a broad smile. "I mean, we have all these skills because you can't keep calling repair people, so you do it yourself. So, really, I think we're pretty smart."
Altogether, there are 68,700 farms in Wisconsin covering 14.4 million acres of land. They provide nearly $ 90 billion for the state economy each year and employ over 400,000 people across the state.
There are nearly 8,500 dairy farms in Wisconsin. Hundreds of them closed in 2019, continuing a ten-year trend that members of the Cooperative Council have said is largely based on a complex system of fixed prices and costs spanning a wide range of production.
"At a cooperative level, we are priced ahead of what the milk should be for the month, so we base all our prices on the products we are manufacturing and selling," explained Schaub. "And then, when the final price comes, it can be a $ 2 difference."
"Well, that $ 2 difference ... There's no way to fix it, so you have a loss for that month. So, you spend too many months in a row, and that's when things get tough." He said, adding that the end result could be bankruptcy.
The five farmers like President Trump's policies. Your behaviour? Not so much. But they knew that Trump would reach better trade deals, which he did with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal.
Vernon County is one of 23 counties that voted for the then President Barack Obama in 2012 and was changed to Trump in 2016.
While many national media have parachuted with the counties of Vernon in the last presidential race to ask Trump's voters when the trade agreement was extended, when the report of Special Attorney Robert Mueller was published and when Trump was accused (and acquitted), few journalists ask voters how they got here in the first place. Additionally, few members of Republican and Democratic institutes who make fun of farmers behind closed doors (or openly on social media) have reflected significantly on why farmers chose Trump over their establishment candidates.
Despite the complaints of the talkative class claiming that there have been too many stories about Trump's voters, farmers like these have a story to tell about lives centered around faith, family and agriculture. Few who really know them could argue that they are not creating a profound benefit for the whole country.
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