Why Democrats are losing the rural vote

 Power Line:

My friend who reads the New York Times pointed me to a devastating front-page Times article about the supply chain mess. I think of the crisis in terms of getting products from ports to U.S. consumers. However, the Times article focuses on the problem of U.S. farmers getting produce to ports for shipment overseas

The article begins with this:

It’s just 60 miles from El Dorado Dairy in Ontario, Calif., to the nation’s largest container port in Los Angeles. But the farm is having little luck getting its products onto a ship headed for the foreign markets that are crucial to its business.

The farm is part of one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, California Dairies Inc., which manufactures milk powder for factories in Southeast Asia and Mexico that use it to make candy, baby formula and other foods. The company typically ships 50 million pounds of its milk powder and butter out of ports each month. But roughly 60 percent of the company’s bookings on outbound vessels have been canceled or deferred in recent months, resulting in about $45 million in missed revenue per month.

Naturally, the same shortage of truck truck drivers and congestion at American ports that prevents or delays items from getting to U.S. consumers prevents or delays farm produce items from getting to foreign markets. Thus, the supply chain problem isn’t just an inconvenience for rich folks, as Ron Klain apparently believes. It’s a whammy coming and going, and the victims are consumers of all classes, producers, and the U.S. economy.

The agriculture sector has been hit particularly hard. According to the Times:

Exporters say they are leaving significant amounts of money on the table as a result of supply chain problems. And many farmers are now struggling to keep up with soaring costs for materials like fertilizer, air filters, pallets and packaging, as well as find farmhands and drivers to move their goods.

A survey by the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, which represents exporters, found that 22 percent of foreign agriculture sales on average were being lost as a result of transportation challenges.

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While this focus is mainly on the supply chain aspect there is another major factor and that is the cost of fuel.  Rural residents have to travel further to get supplies and they have to fuel their equipment need to farm and ranch.  This drives up the cost of just doing business in ways that many in urban areas do not face.  It is likely one of the reasons why Democrats lost virtually all of the rural counties in Virginia in the recent election. 

The trucking situation is also a serious problem and the Democrats' response has been to talk about the race of the drivers rather than the real logistics of dealing with the fuel crisis imposed by the Democrats and Biden.  They act surprised that nearly doubling the price of fuel impacts the bottom line of trucking.