Copy of AFF Sentinel V21 #33-Trainwreck?

How Much Will Protests, Signs and Pyrotechnics Shape the Election and Our Future

Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel

Colorado Springs, CO

Originally sent to subscribers 08/19/24

We were shocked and saddened this weekend to hear of the passing of a stalwart and long-time defender of the free market and champion of the beef industry, Greg Henderson of Drover’s Journal. He was very knowledgeable of the beef production chain and the men and women who make it work. Few people writing today had Greg’s experience of the ups and downs, struggles and successes of our industry. May he rest in peace, having made a tremendous contribution to our past, present and future.

So, just how much trouble are the Democrats in for this week at their convention in Chicago?

Why do we care? This is the political party for a long time dedicated to big government socialism but now, it appears, are fielding a presidential ticket of admitted, bold, radical far left politicians taking dead aim at our industry and the American economy.

You’ve likely heard that not only does Kamala Harris propose slapping price controls on the food production chain, what she meant to call “price gouging” but read price “gauging” from the teleprompter, but she singled out ground beef as a prime culprit. 

She claimed the price of ground beef was up 50 percent (the actual figure is 38 percent), but the claim was that price gouging and someone’s illicit profit taking was something she would fix.

Of course, the smaller cattle supply is a key reason but the demand for ground beef from both foodservice outlets from fast food to fine dining would be beyond her economic understanding.

After all, she thinks high prices cause inflation instead of inflation causing higher prices. That’s why she wants to spend roughly $1.7 to 2 trillion more to stop inflation. Much of that would be loads of free things for the public.

Her big government socialist economic plans are just part of what’s horribly wrong with her policy outlines.

By the way, Larry Kudlow clarified some terminology we think bears repeating. In communism, the government takes over the means of production, expropriating factories and farms, ala Soviet Russia or Hugo Chavez. Socialists don’t take the companies outright but regulate and control them so that mismanagement and bureaucratic graft causes supplies of goods and services to dry up and production to eventually fail.

Of course, to some degree, the lack of individual incentive filters down through communist economies, through socialist economies and even, to an extent, through government bureaucracies in free countries, causing inefficiencies, graft and shortages.

A more detailed description will have to wait until Harris comes up with some details. But for now, as one Democrat woman on the street opined, she prefers Harris’ “vibe” much better than Biden’s and she’s not concerned about policy.

Lands sakes, as Grandma used to say.

But beyond misguided policy pronouncements, truly unfathomable running mate decisions, her ascension to candidacy without any vote, the next week in Chicago could well destroy the good “vibes.” The chaos of this week, created in large part by the Democratic party itself, could go a long way to derailing Harris’ campaign and reputation among swing voters and some Democrats.

There is the specter of huge demonstrations outside the convention center. And if demonstrators can sneak into Congressional hearings in the Capitol under supposedly tight security, it is highly likely they will get inside the convention hall itself and disrupt proceedings, even more than the disruption of selecting a candidate before the candidates ever convened.

Then there is what one might call the parade factor. Is the general population ready for a steady diet of socialist enthusiasm in speeches from the likes of Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer and Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. We hope they don’t get a dose of agricultural “reform” from Sen. Cory Booker, to back Harris’ attack on the food chain. Hugo would feel comfortable.

We don’t think Donald Trump was too far off when he said American will never become a communist country, regardless of the definition. This next election is shaping up to be the test of that theory, as Harris and Walz are willing to push the envelope even further than Barrack Obama dared to do or judged the political climate would bear.

The “Coalition to March on the DNC” held a press conference on Sunday to profess their intentions. One speaker looked like a throwback to the Black Panthers from 1968’s demonstrations and another appeared to be a towering, pretty-in-pink-spaghetti-strap  top member of a men’s takeover of a WNBA girls night out.

Much more frightening was a Chicago alderman’s explanation that while pro-Israeli demonstrators had been assigned areas somewhat away from the United Center, the pro-Hamas groups had been given spaces closer to the convention where they could be more vocal and be more visible for the cameras. The alderman said the mayor was confident Chicago could handle the demonstrators, but businesses did not believe that and were boarding up and leaving.

It is hard to say if the estimates of tens of thousands of demonstrators showing up will be proven right or if the big show will fizzle. But the potential for the huge rifts between wings of the Democrat party being on display for the country to see and react to could be very consequential. The Democrats have uncharacteristically splintered into many political factions, based on their own shallow and emotional criteria. But some of them, like the pro-terrorist wing and the BLM-Antifa forces that have serious funding and embrace violence could turn this into an embarrassment of major proportions.

It seems like a page torn from a bad TV movie script that the politician who refused to do anything about five miles of his city burning and being looted and the lawyer who raised money to bail the perpetrators out of jail could then appear as the presidential ticket at a major political party convention in the United States of America.

But here we are.

The Supreme Court, influenced by Trump’s appointments to the Court, has taken significant steps to roll back the power of the government to regulate and interfere with business and culture in America. Agriculture is one of the industries still operating on general free market principles. Never has the choice been starker between the professed directions of the two main parties in this country. The progress, the efficiency, the determined survival skills and the vision of American agriculture has largely been the result of private sector work. This election will be a turning point as to whether that can continue.

All roads -- railroads -- historically used to go through Chicago for agriculture. This week, a big city neither an ag powerhouse nor the major financial center of the country, takes center stage.

Our address: Agribusiness Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 88179, Colorado Springs, CO. 80908.

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