Tolkkinen: Some city folks miffed at all rural Minnesota for Trump votes

CLITHERALL, MINN. - Remember when you were a kid and some classmates were being noisy so the whole class got yelled at?

That’s kinda how it feels in rural Minnesota right now.

Whenever we in greater Minnesota object to something the Trump administration is doing — whether it’s farmers losing soybean markets due to tariffs or the staffing cuts to the Farm Service Agency or even last Saturday, when thousands turned out for the “Hands Off” protests throughout the state — someone on social media inevitably shrugs.

“Too bad. You voted for him,” they say.

Well, not everybody in rural Minnesota voted for Trump. In most greater Minnesota counties, at least 35% of the voters chose someone else. Some counties he won went pink, not red. Still, Democrats in rural counties often feel lonely and isolated, and worse, during a time of political upheaval, they are being ignored by their Republican members of Congress. Dismissing these folks as unworthy because their neighbors wear MAGA hats seems callous.

It is also true that two-thirds of rural Minnesota voters chose Trump. City people can turn their backs on rural America because of that, but honestly, it won’t make much difference because some rural people feel that their urban counterparts have already turned their backs on them. (An idea, I might add, that is flogged by those with political skin in the game.)

Out here, it’s difficult for the little guy to get ahead. We see wealthy outsiders come in and replace mom-and-pop lake cabins with mansions and we wonder, “Where the heck do they get all their money?” It probably wasn’t from working in a mine 40 or 50 hours a week. It probably wasn’t from milking cows seven days a week, twice a day, or from driving a truck across the country leaving your family for days at a stretch. I have hopes that this will change as high-speed internet has become more available, but this is what rural Minnesota has been dealing with for decades. I’m not whining about it. Just explaining.

And now, when a city person’s 401k is plummeting in value due to Trump’s tariffs, well, a rural person is lucky to even have a retirement account. Last month, the bipartisan think tank Economic Innovation Group released a study showing that fewer than half of rural residents had access to a retirement account, and those who did had accounts with half the value of city workers.

It’s not that we in greater Minnesota feel any sort of schadenfreude toward people whose retirement accounts have fallen off a cliff. It’s more like a tired feeling of, “Welcome to my world.”

Trump gave people in rural areas a rare taste of power. It’s a hard feeling to give up even when you have to start driving an hour to the Social Security office, or when your employer announces layoffs or money you were promised for cover crops doesn’t arrive. They’re still hoping that his policies will work out in the long run, that eventually they’ll be better off.

Meanwhile, Trump is setting federal agencies on fire. He’s violating the Constitution. He’s belittling our allies. All this is true. And I can’t deny that some Trump supporters undoubtedly hold anti-trans, anti-immigrant or misogynistic views.

But others voted for Trump for other reasons. They want mining. Or they want their gun rights protected. Or they’re tired of seeing huge chunks of their paychecks go toward taxes to pay an unfathomable amount of federal spending when they can’t even afford to fund their own retirement accounts. They figured that Trump, as a businessman, would help get the house in order.

I can understand the temptation to let the chips fall where they may for rural areas, and to shrug and say “FAFO,” which stands for the less family-friendly version of “fool around and find out.”

But will turning one’s back on rural America create a better future? Will it solve the problems that generated support for Trump in the first place?

There’s a Substack essay I like by Farmer Georgie who addresses the disdain liberals have for farmers who voted for Trump.

“While I didn’t agree with the agricultural vote for Trump, I do understand the generations of frustrations and disappointments with U.S. policies that are the reason why farmers and ranchers supported Trump,” she wrote. “Quite frankly, liberals’ ‘FAFO’ comments don’t help. If anything, it only makes farmers and ranchers double down. (And trust me, there is no more immovable force than a stubborn farmer/rancher!).”

Stubbornness is not always a good trait, but it is necessary in farm country to endure the setbacks from drought, tragedy or rock-bottom milk prices.

I might also add that the liberals who treat rural areas like a monolith might be surprised when they visit Europe or Canada to be treated the same way.

“But we didn’t vote for Trump,” they might protest. I do hope the Europeans and Canadians understand.