By Bill Barth
Ideologues always overplay their hand. Can’t resist.
Two recent observations serve as reminders the die-hards operate inside echo chambers, deaf and blind to how regular folks live their lives. Even when the people respond with loud and clear messages, the one-side-only crowd is shocked others disagree with them.
Worse, the partisan impulse is to dig in and reject the people’s will.
In Wisconsin, the Left’s flirtation with socialism in the form of gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong went unrequited on primary election day. Polls showed Hong leading the Democrat field by double digits, only to be upset by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
Sanity prevailed. Hong is a Democratic Socialist who has represented a district in Madison, which in no way resembles the majority of Wisconsin’s electorate. She made weird statements and embraced policies that elicit cheers in Madison but go over like a dead skunk elsewhere in Wisconsin.
Crowley is largely unknown but remember Republican Scott Walker rode the Milwaukee County executive position to the governor’s mansion in 2010. Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement of Crowley as a more moderate choice than Hong clearly carried weight.
The fringe Left lost. Cue applause.
I have close ties to agriculture and still manage business affairs at the family farm 300 miles south in Illinois. I always look forward to my trips there for many reasons, not least of which is to take the political temperature of rural America. Since President Trump descended the golden escalator for the 2016 election he has owned hearts in the remote farming community. Where Roosevelt Democrats once held sway, the rightward drift accelerated under Trump because rural folks justifiably felt ignored by the political establishment.
But today cracks are growing wider.
As James Carville told Bill Clinton decades ago, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
America’s farming communities are in trouble. The average grain farm is losing money. Much of it is self-inflicted by the Trump administration. American farmers produce more than their countrymen can consume. Which is a good thing, and the reason the kind of food insecurity that afflicts much of the world has been all but banished here, freeing up people to pursue dreams.
Farmers depend on exports to balance production. Which is also a good thing, because it is crucial to feeding the world. Trump’s tariffs blew up the export market, collapsing commodity prices. Meanwhile, competitors – most notably, Brazil – rushed to fill export demand with sufficient supply and lower prices. Now the markets may be gone forever.
Making it worse, the war with Iran – specifically, shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz – skyrocketed rural inflation by closing off key input components related to fertilizer and other chemicals. Our family farm’s 2026 input costs rose more than 55%.
The combination of low commodity prices and soaring costs is making rural folks rethink their political allegiances. Where once all I heard were reverent references to President Trump, today there’s blunt recognition his policies are behind hard times for what had been one of the pillars of his base.
A more nuanced view of immigration enforcement is also breaking through. The banner headline in a recent edition of The Prairie Press back home read, “This is One of Ours.” It’s about federal authorities snatching off the street an undocumented man who lived there nearly all his life, built a business and was deeply involved in positive community activities. His friends and neighbors – even the mayor – are angry and demanding the man’s return.
Whether it’s Hong’s loss in Wisconsin or the derailing Trump Train in rural Illinois, it’s part of an old story. Political activists can’t read the larger room. They gather in pods, where everybody sounds the same, then leave exhilarated thinking their world view is ascendant.
They obsess over culture issues. The woke Left believes the be-all and end-all revolves around identity politics. They wallow in feeling oppressed and victimized. They blame wealthy and successful people. They’re convinced everybody but them is racist. They want government to play the central role in evening out lives.
The Right acts like everyone on the other side is a communist. Or worse, trans. If people are poor it’s their own damn fault. Education is a plot to indoctrinate kids in the ways of socialism. If you have a different view you can’t be a patriot or a Christian.
The older I get the more I’m convinced. The fringe angry Left is half the problem. The fringe angry Right is the other half.
Whenever one or the other wins and takes charge, hang onto your brain. Sanity will be under assault by ideologues, while what people really long for is governance that cares about them.
I’m actually somewhat encouraged. Hong’s defeat – late though it came – suggests lots of Wisconsin Democrats stood up for more mainstream views. Likewise, the pulse in rural America is turning against the worst impulses of the Right because it’s causing real pain.
Here’s a bold prediction. Candidates who run toward the center will do better this fall, and maybe in 2028.
Ideologues on both sides will still be stunned. After all, everybody in their pod agrees with them.
Bill Barth is the former Editor of the Beloit Daily News, and a member of the Wisconsin NewsMedia Hall of Fame. Write to him at bbarth@beloitdailynews.com.
