How long will the "F" stay in the DFL?

[question everything]

Bear with me - we have lived in Minnesota only 15 years so am not familiar with the history of the formation of the party.

A few days ago someone had a letter in the strib, describing all the Trump signs on the roads as he drove from Fargo to the Twin Cities. He wondered whether these farmers realized how much they benefit from trade agreements that Trump promises to eliminate, at least to modify.

Not growing on a farm nor a farm community, I was thinking that, intuitively, one does not associate farms with labor union. Farmers are independent - dare I say rugged individuals? - who are constantly facing obstacles. Nature, of course, and government regulations, price support of commodities, bankers, providers of farm supplies. Zoning..

Unions, on the other hand, are based on workers coming together for the common good.

I think that the DFL formed in the Iron Range, when mining was the source of sustenance and when unions were formed under harsh and risky conditions.

But now the mines are gone. Many voters there have lost their jobs, jobs that are never coming back.

There was a story in the strib - today, or yesterday - about the bitterness against the government in the Iron Range and the support for Trump and for Mills.

And I wonder whether switching the Iron Range from blue to red may signal the beginning of the end of the union of farmers and labor.

OK, start shooting..

[msongs]

1. the "iron range" crowd must love trump importing chinese made steel nt

[question everything]

2. Right. Most Trumpistas do not think rationally

Hope Nolan pointed this.

[Brickbat]

6. There are lots of yard signs out now saying "Stewart Mills loves Chinese steel."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Here's a little history:

The DFL was created in 1944 by the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party. The Farmer–Labor Party in turn arose from the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota and the Union Labor Party in Duluth. The Nonpartisan League favored state control of mills, grain elevators, banks and other farm-related industries, while the Union Labor Party represented the iron miners, loggers and sawmill workers in northern Minnesota. All of these early parties were basically socialist or socialist-leaning. The farmers were not union members or supporters as such, but especially during the Depression they were looking for ways to keep corporate political interests from controlling the prices paid them by grain elevators and mills, and loan practices of banks. The reason the DFL was created was that both the union workers and the famers had the common interest of resisting the corporations' ability to keep their prices and wages low.

[question everything]

4. Thank you. Interesting

But now, I think, their interest diverged. I suspect that now farmers see "government" as interfering with their operations, more so than corporations.

Also, I think that operations by corporations are now more regulated by, yes, the "government" so farmers feel that they can stand up to them.

[JayhawkSD]

8. They must not have experienced health insurance. nt

[Thor_MN]

9. There is a large Urban/Rural divide.

The Rural areas feel that their tax dollars are funneled into urban areas to pay for everything in the cities. The Urban areas feel their tax dollars are being taken to pay for outstate needs.

[dflprincess]

5. My parents grew up in Renville County during the Depression

(neither one grew up on farms) and even back then the farmers in that area were largely Republican, despite the number of farms that were foreclosed on.

The family of my aunt's late husband owned a farm in that area and my uncle once said that he always voted DFL because his father went to his grave swearing he would have lost the farm if it had not been for FDR...Apparently uncle's dad had more sense than the average farmer in that area.

[Brickbat]

7. When it comes to the F, it's more a name than anything. When it comes to the L, some areas of

the party are trying really hard to lose that, too.