TAT readers,
Well, we’re down to 23 days until our midterm elections and if you thought it was crazy now… just wait. I haven’t the slightest doubt that our elections have been marginalized and the GOP has been at it for well over a decade. Those announcements that this administration and the Republican Party will “rig” the election, are a “day late and dollar short.” It’s already done except for any new surprises by the administration and GOP in the next three weeks. I addressed this partly in Wednesday’s essay.
"Radical, mid-decade gerrymandering is just one of the ways they have already acted. As a Texan I’m all too familiar with the way state legislatures have passed legislation to legally “rig” elections. Gerrymandering, voter suppression laws, removal of the majority of ballot boxes in “blue” districts etc., are just some of the ways the GOP has already rigged our midterms. This has been going on for years and just last year, Republicans passed 32 voter suppression and similar laws in 17 almost entirely red-states. Winning this election with enough of a majority to make changes in the next congress will be daunting. Cheerleading “go blue” isn’t enough and many of us resisting don’t claim themselves as Democrats. Please remember that resistance is for America, not just the Democratic Party, wherever they are. Resistance is a people’s movement of true patriots." - Fear of the midterms is palpable for the GOP. - Truth about Threats - Paul Cobaugh - October 7th, 2026
Like the people of Hungary who after 16 years of the depraved, extreme-right wing Putin sycophant, Viktor Orban’s, the Hungarian people united and deposed him earlier this year. Orban too had “rigged” elections. We can do the same to this administration and their duplicitous GOP enablers but first, we need a few tips from the courageous Hungarians’ success. Like today’s GOP, Orban’ had for years, “rigged” Hungary’s elections via a myriad of legislative and obscure rule changes. Still, the people who believed in democracy had, had enough. Orban’s messaging had been for years, similar to the GOP’s, no doubt because they both follow an authoritarian playbook and strategy espoused by and assisted by Putin.
Global leaders like Milei, Bolsonaro and Modi, have all taken pages from that same playbook and used the content for their own personal gain, rather than their people’s. Before them, it was Hitler’s playbook, which had been built on other historical regimes’. One of the primary features of Hungary’s opposition leader, Peter Magyar’s victory over tyranny, was to go all in with engagement of the countryside, or what we call in the US, “flyover country.” Another, was to engage all slices of Hungarian society except for the far-right. Magyar ran as a centrist. These are lessons that today’s DNC have either ignored or struggled with for decades. Trump and the GOP filled that vacuum with the same type of National Inquirer-type propaganda that defines today’s GOP. The result was a solid red voting bloc for decades. That is beginning to change due to Trump administration and the GOP’s debilitating leadership. Why did the DNC ignore rural America for so long?
Still, the DNC largely ignored flyover country or what many of us who hail from there, call the “heartland.” I suspect that if it wasn’t for the issue of affordability, they still would. Another narrative that Magyar and his party succeeded with was that, they were reclaiming the definition of patriotism that like Trump and the GOP, Orban’ had corrupted. In the heartland or anywhere in rural America, words like “patriotism,” God and country are not seen as “corny.” They are words and meanings respected, even when Republicans make a mockery of the meanings. For decades, the DNC acted as if language like this was foreign to them. The GOP didn’t steal those words, the DNC gave them to the GOP, all wrapped up and with a big pretty bow on top.
Rural America rightly bristles at being considered “lesser” educated, sophisticated or worldly. We really bristle at being ignored as well. That’s why when the GOP began engaging with rural voters, they were willing to listen. There are now a bevy of flyover-country democratic candidates, that are breaking the mold made by decades of FOX News-styled marketing of Republican candidates. Many of these newer Democratic voices are women, such as, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Dr. Amy Acton in Ohio, Dr. Annie Andrews in SC, Hallie Shoffner in Arkansas and so on, but they are not alone. Other Democratic candidates from traditionally deep red states from Kansas to Texas, are also either competitive or already have winning margins. For once, we can only hope that these candidates are being supported by the DNC, after decades of being ignored.
Rural America is in my opinion, the proverbial, “canary in the coal mine” and presents a successful approach to chipping away decades of right-wing dominance in these mostly ignored regions. Here in Texas a unicorn of a candidate, James Talarico is paving the way. He doesn’t ignore or insult voters traditionally in the opposition. He has primarily made his candidacy one of earnestly talking with, not at voters, regardless of which “side” they are on. He has put the target of his campaign, right where both sides can see it, money in politics. With our currently worsening affordability crisis, his honest, faith-based engagement with voters over our plight regarding affordability, he is not forcing Republican crossover voters (and there are lots of them) into defending their loyalty to their political tribe. Hence, they put down their defenses long enough to realize that all non-billionaire Americans are suffering equally. This isn’t only brilliant, but his sentiments are real, human and forthright.
Those of us who’ve lived in rural America respect his straightforward common-sense and decency. His faith doesn’t offend anyone but Christian Nationalists or the handful of zealots in the GOP from Judaism, Hinduism or similar religions with prominent hard-right factions. He speaks openly and earnestly to all people of faith or no faith at all, without judgement or prejudice. He also is assertively in support of the constitutional obligation, for separation of church and state. Rural Texans, long-abused by thirty years of GOP dominance are listening. A year or so ago, they would not listen at all. Much the same can be said for the other Democrats succeeding across rural America, where faith is often a pillar of society.
The nation’s flyover folks, just wanted to be respected and heard, something Democrats have failed at among other things, for a couple of decades. Frankly, the tsunami of slick, loud and corrosive campaign ads from the right are often despised as much as the left by these honest, grounded Americans. These voters just want fair policy that gives them a chance to achieve the American Dream of work, home, security and food on the table. For the last couple of decades, all the left could talk about was policy and without it ever being made clear what it mattered to our everyday lives. Despite both primary political parties insatiable pursuit of big donor campaign dollars, often from the coasts, it is rural America that feeds us and this current administration is abusing farmers and ranchers as much as any other workers in America.
Some of the reasons that rural America and their surrounding communities are so angry are the same reasons that urban Americans are angry. They can’t afford what the GOP has done to the economy, and we’re nowhere near the bottom yet. Yesterday the White House announced that we’ll buy diesel from Russia to help lower prices for the fuel that keeps our country running. It will not make much difference and is more a political stunt, that a sound policy decision. Furthermore, it keeps Putin’s genocidal war machine going against Ukraine and funds their ongoing hostile acts all across Europe. Other than our cars and lawnmowers that mostly run on gasoline, nearly everything we eat or buy requires diesel fuel in production, transportation and a thousand other critical needs.
The truckers who bring us goods and services are suffering terribly with 16 operators going out of business between August and September alone. Some of course were single operators but the list also includes companies with dozens of trucks and operators. Shipping overseas also depends on fuel to either take our products overseas or bring in the astronomical amount of products manufactured overseas. Record high diesel prices are the primary reason. Farmers and ranchers are suffering far worse. The USDA forecasts that farm debt will increase to a record high of $605.1 billion by the end of this year with farm income declining by $158 billion in the same period. Simply said, it costs a lot more to farm and those who do will make substantially less profit. Farm bankruptcies are up 46% over just last year, and the future looks even bleaker.
Of course, the Iran War has made a decades-long decline in family farms dramatically worse, and for the two primary reasons we hear about in our news feeds, fuel and fertilizer. Over the decades, corporate farming has taken over enormous slices of US agriculture but now, even they are suffering at the bank. Cattle ranchers like farmers are hurting and both are furious over tariffs, the Iran War and poor agriculture policy emanating from Washington. The purchase of Argentine ground beef, most of which was recalled, turned out to be a fiasco that imposed further pain on the meat industry providers. Meanwhile, there are only four corporate meatpackers that control almost all of America’s meat. It’s well past due that we break up all monopolies and trusts.
"In February, a bipartisan group of 27 influential figures in the farming industry, including former heads of commodity groups and USDA officials, wrote a public letter to Congress. The letter called on Congress to reverse the Trump administration’s agriculture policies, citing “tremendous harm” and the possible “widespread collapse of American agriculture.” Echoing a refrain from the first days of Farm Aid that remains true now, they wrote that when farmers suffer, “the entire rural economy is impacted—from schools, to churches, to main street businesses.” - Tracking the Farm Economy in Crisis - Farm Aid - July 22, 2026
Family farming and ranching, the heart and soul of rural America, has been on the decline for decades, largely due to corporate farms and processing monopolies that control most of US agriculture. Not enough attention has been given to the plight of farmers and ranchers, nor do they get the political attention they deserve. Largely the DNC has written off rural America and in their absence, the GOP has courted these rural states with their typical false promises that have only accelerated the corporate takeover of those who produce what we eat. Last December the administration had to offer farmers a one-time $12 billion bailout due to the harm Trump and his Republican-led congress had caused via their disastrous tariff policy, followed by Trump’s Iran war. Farmers and ranchers are not looking for the handouts being offered by the administration, they just want honest work with an honest chance to make a living.
"A handful of corporations control our food from farm to fork. Their unbridled power grants them increasing political influence over the rules that govern our food system and allows them to manipulate the marketplace – pushing down the prices paid to family farmers and driving them out of business. For eaters, extreme consolidation leaves fewer choices in the grocery aisle and higher prices, while corporate-written policies are sparking growing food safety concerns and less transparency in the marketplace. In sum, our corporate controlled food system damages rural communities, local economies, public health and the soil and water needed to sustain food production." - Corporate Control in Agriculture - Farm Aid
The longer the Iran war and tariffs remain the primary wounds imposed onto our AG communities, the greater the risk and not just to the AG community. Our economy is suffering painfully. Like most industries these days, agriculture has been reduced to a small handful of corporate interests, or monopolized. We not only must engage rural America, but we must listen carefully to their very real grievances and then act with good policy for all, not just corporate interests. It’s not unsurprising that VP J.D. Vance was an early investor in AcreTrader, a company that focuses on buying up rich farmland, including an interest in heavily indebted or bankrupt farms, for a collective of buyers, often including foreign investors.
I was raised in rural America with farmers on both sides of the family and admittedly am biased towards it. Although the DNC has long failed or in many cases not even tried to engage these communities, it is the GOP that has sold them out to corporate monopolies. The results are fully visible today, especially as we are all experiencing an affordability crisis. You cannot run a country if you ignore half of it, especially the half that feeds us. As a matter of electoral math, the DNC is missing an opportunity to capitalize on the GOP’s negative impact on farmers, ranchers and the communities they live in. I don’t give rural America a free pass entirely for their dedication to the GOP., These reliably “red-states” have long voted against their own self interests. AG jobs and opportunities have disappeared from the Mississippi Delta to the ranches of Montana, especially good ones. I firmly believe that if the Democratic Party stopped seeing them as a “lost cause,” and actually listened, they would find solid, loyal and common-sense oriented voters.
At a time when our nation is at a constitutional, economic and national security crisis, we cannot afford to lose a single ally toward recovering our republic. There is now opportunity in rural America for those that engage honestly and with follow-through. These voters hold much of our future in their hands. Most are recognizing that they have been sold out, especially by this administration and MAGA version of the GOP. After years of neglect, they are cautious of Democrats but due to the affordability crisis, are more likely to hear what reasonable politicians have to say now, more than at any time in the past twenty years or so. Let’s not miss this opportunity to bring “flyover country” back into the American family as respected non-MAGA citizens, rather than allowing them to be continually fleeced by Trump, his billionaire buddies and FOX News, who apparently don’t care whether they eat, have housing or can go to a doctor without going bankrupt.
As a Texan, I am seeing positive change from our rural communities every day. The Argentine beef fiasco definitely took a toll on their loyalty to the Texas GOP. If deep-red Texas can do it, any state can. In the next three weeks, it’s going to matter how well we support those candidates running against Republicans without the courage to stand up to the White House.
All my very best for your weekend,
Paul