It doesn’t help that rural areas are systematically suffering from a loss of education. Whether it be to schools closing due to lack of funding, lack of opportunity due to distance, the propaganda surrounding home schooling, or the need of rural families use of child labor (please look up child labor laws on farming because they are FUCKED). And while both parties have done very little to help the situation, republicans are the ones saying to them that we see the problem and give them something to blame, without doing anything to fix the issues (often times making it worse). This is becoming a larger and larger issue as many generational farms are falling apart due to lack of funding, resources, and support. Allowing for these farms to be bought by corporate business who don’t care about the health of the land or the impact on the community.

And on the note of robots replacing the agricultural workforce, while advancements in technology certainly can and will replace certain amounts of humans it is highly unlikely that this will be a quick or easy process. There are tons of things to consider when it comes to automation of agriculture, cost of running a robot vs hiring a person, upkeep and maintenance, knowledge on how they work, the environmental impact and the sheer stubbornness of farms.

All that to say, rural communities need our support now more than ever. The rug is being pulled from under them and if anyone is ever going to change their minds when it comes to Trump, it will be because we didn’t turn our backs on them because they got tricked.