Denis Richardson makes a very good point in his letter published Sept. 18 when he asks why nice people, like North Dakotans, can support someone like Trump, whose policies are based on hatred and division. It’s even worse than Richardson might realize, because Trump is also sacrificing North Dakota’s farm economy in favor of Big Oil and Brazil.
His trade war has given our largest soybean market to Brazil, and he has granted so many exceptions to the renewable fuel standard to increase oil profits that our corn market is eroding. Those were our most lucrative crops, and we will never regain the soybean market, at least, because Brazil is burning the forests that provide up to 20% of the world’s oxygen in order to plant more soybeans to replace ours, while Trump deliberately looks the other way.
So why do North Dakotans support him? As a lifelong north Dakotan near the political center, I can give a few answers, starting with the best reasons.
First, the extremists on the left are almost as bad as those on the right in ways that matter to us. Their demand for unrestricted, federally-funded abortions is unacceptable to many in North Dakota precisely because we are good people. So is discrimination against Christians, which no one would accept if it were directed at any other group.
Obama gave Trump a leg up in North Dakota and the rest of the heartland when — just before the election — he said grade-school children could use the bathroom of their choice. We believe children should keep their innocence, and a little girl who walks in on a little boy doesn’t see what’s in his mind! We don’t believe Trump cares a fig about these issues, but his party line runs the right way.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since then he has done evil things that outweigh the good, at least to many of us. His policies save the lives of unborn children, but children die in his prison camps. He is supporting destruction of the earth, without which all other issues are moot. He has asked for longer terms and additional terms, and undermined representative democracy in countless ways. He may not be willing to move aside if he voted out, and we wonder if that is one reason he lets extremists buy guns without a background check, even as they commit mass murders. Does he intend them to fight for him some day? Who knows?
RELATED
-
Letter: There are many reasons North Dakotans might support President Trump
-
Letter: The lesser of two evils is evil, Karen
North Dakotans had little to choose from in the last election; neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton had any connection to rural America. Now Trump has lost more than 20% of his approval rating in North Dakota but still has a majority of our electors. That may or may not change by November 2020, or the Republicans might even nominate someone else. Only time will tell.
