Ag Retailers Association Part 2
Ag Retailers Association Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
Friday we began a conversation with the President and CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association, Daren Coppock about the recent changes in the political landscape. He discusses an important fact and that is swings in parties.
COPPOCK: That’s a really important dynamic I think because in the period ’94 to ’06 the average swing from one party to another in that period was 5 seats. In the last 3 elections the average has been 38 and this year it was 63. So what you are seeing is a pendulum swinging from one side, way over to the other side and when they get tired of that side they swing back over to the other side again.
As you might expect Coppock says that makes the House a really challenging place to work.
COPPOCK: So what were voters really saying in the elections? I think that rather than being a repudiation of the Democrats or an endorsement of the Republicans, my view is that it was the public at large telling Washington we are sick and tired of the way you guys do business. We don’t care about which party you are representing, neither one of you are doing the job we want you to do.
He says one poll taken in 2009 found that respondents thought both parties were responsible for the nations’ problems. Coppock was talking to the Far West Agribusiness Association.
COPPOCK: Charlie Cook who is a noted political commentator in Washington observed this shortly after this poll was released that bi-partisanship is now being studied like paleontologists study dinosaur bones. It doesn’t exist anymore. Now maybe the narrower margin in the Senate will force it to happen over there but in the House of Representatives the majority rules.
The other aspect of the election was of course the Presidential side of things.
COPPOCK: I don’t know that people were voting FOR candidates as much as they were voting AGAINST candidates. We think back to 2000, were people really voting for George Bush or were they voting against Al Gore? In 2004 were they voting for George Bush or were they voting against John Kerry? And in 2008 there was a significant portion of the population even some Republicans who were not going to vote for what they saw as the next incarnation of George Bush. And so whether it was John McCain or whatever the alternative is that’s what we’re going to vote for. And so I think we have seen quite a bit of that in the last couple of elections.
Some very interesting ideas to think about. More on tomorrow.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
