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Mid-term elections are fast upon us. Mr. Trump says that we should pretend that his name is on the ballot. Okay then.
I get to follow two Congressional races. Congressional District One is most of southern Minnesota and District Seven is most of western Minnesota. I am on the edge in CD7. CD1 begins at my line fence which borders two townships.
There is a longtime Republican incumbent serving in each of those. I assume they would be happy with you pretending Mr. Trump was on the ballot when you see their names. Trump's popularity has sunk to historic lows nationally. But support for the aging New York playboy remains strong in rural Minnesota.
As far as I know, neither of our congresspeople had has ever openly challenged anything our president has said or done. Maybe I missed a peep from one of them, but it never made the news.
Trump 2016 was one thing. He was surrounded by people who understood where he needed to be reined in. These were people who understood the unique role the United States serves, or used to serve, as "leader of the Free World."
Those people are gone. Give credit to a set of right wing thought leaders that rolled the dice with Trump and have power they could only have dreamt of. They've put themselves in every single cog in every gear of the government.
Donald Trump could never be accused of being an intellectual. If you look back at positions he has held, they've been all over the place. For decades he was pro-abortion, until it became expedient to not be. The only constants have been belittling others and enriching himself.
Those of us who have been forced to watch him since 2015 see that if you tell Trump how great he is, you can use that to your advantage. Name a building after him. Put his picture up. Especially find a way to line his pockets, and he can be manipulated like putty.
While Trump is distracted by shiny objects, large damage has been done to our government. All sorts of programs and agencies which were the work of Democrats and Republicans over multiple administrations were gutted.
Consider scientific research that was cut off at the knees in the DOGE chaos. 383 clinical trials with 74,000 enrolled patients lost access to ongoing treatment and monitoring.
Those ended in a day. There was no reasonable effort to save data. There is a chance you or I will die from an ailment that may have had a cure from research that was wiped out.
The Beltsville Agriculture Research Center closed last week. It has been the center of our nation's ag research since 1910. It was the flagship of the USDA. Many advancements in plant genetics, food safety, plant health, and more were rooted there for over a century.
Admittedly, one has to be sort of a geek to know about Beltsville. But it is the kind of thing we should expect our representatives from rural districts to know about and defend. If there was whiff of opposition from them, it never crossed my desk.
Cutting government for the sake of cutting government has had proponents since the New Deal. RAGE stands for Retire All Government Employees and comes from the dark corners of the internet. The people who are in positions of power now know about RAGE. Project 2025 has similar roots.
Trump claimed to not know anything about Project 2025. I believe him. It's his role to throw slop against the wall. He fills our heads with ballrooms and Greenland and who to hate, while much is being systematically destroyed.
The strategy is to put all the power into the executive branch. It really is unprecedented. The skids for that were greased by a supplicant Supreme Court and a Congress that stood on the sidelines. As such, a few hundred Republicans are responsible for removing checks and balances that were in place for 250 years.
Along with the domestic mayhem, has come a shift in our foreign policy. Last week, it was reported that Canada had to consider what to do it the United States invades them. Meanwhile, Trump touts his great friendship with the Chinese dictator.
Throw in tariffs which there are no economists think are a good idea. Add to that a war with Iran which has been exactly the disaster every other administration knew it would be. All this has had significant negative impact on agriculture.
There have been small cracks in Congress. Last week, South Dakotans John Thune and Mike Rounds spoke out against the Trump TV ads that were paid by the government. It is possible for Republican to stand up to the president.
I get why our congresspeople wouldn't criticize the president. Trump might call them a mean name. Some weird people would post bad things about them. But if that is enough to keep you from defending the people of your district, maybe get a different job. Lots of companies are hiring around here.
Of course, they were paid $91,000 for days the House was not in session this year. So, it is a pretty good gig.
I have met Eric Osberg who is challenging in my district and Jake Johnson who is challenging across the line fence. They are good and decent men who want to defend the Constitution from abuses of power. They will oppose the obvious things hurting our rural economy: tariffs, loss of markets, abuse of immigrant workers, etc.
As I wrote this week, came another example of presidential overreach. Trump announced Russia will release diesel fuel onto the global market. For the sake of a few cents off a gallon, we will finance Putin's attacks on Ukraine. And since Russia supports Iran, indirectly attacks on Americans.
The president is ignoring sanctions on Russian energy that were passed by Congress in 2022 and 2025. It would be nice if our members of Congress said something. Don't hold your breath.
-- Randy Krzmarzick farms on the home place west of Sleepy Eye, where he lives with his wife, Pam.