Politics and Agriculture
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. From labor reform to the rising cost of growing our food, politics isn’t helping to fix the crisis agriculture is facing.
Washington Post Columnist, Megan McCardle wonders what ever happened to trying to understand what the problems are and coming up with a compromise …
McCARDLE … “Doing politics the way we used to do politics. We do so much less of that now. A lot of those deals, you know, the old backroom deals, the smoke-filled rooms, there was a lot to not like about that. But it got politics done in a way that people could live with. And it wasn’t people just shouting on social media about theories. It was people thinking about everyday problems, and I think we need to get back to that.”
Lawmakers, McCardle says need to worry more about their jobs in this crazy online world …
McCARDLE … “It’s like they’re trying to use their Congressional seat to jumpstart their social media career, right. They’re not getting legislation done. There’s usually one big bill, or two big bills at the start of an administration, and then it’s three years waiting for the next administration to come in and do one big bill. The ordinary work of Washington, the day-in, the day-out, I didn’t love it, but I miss it.”
Because there are more important things to worry about …
McCARDLE … “I think social media has broken our brains in a lot of ways. We just sit online and we doom scroll. We look at, oh may gosh, can you believe this person did this thing. You forget, 350-million people in this country, and at any given time, someone’s going to be doing something crazy!”
But, McCardle says when you walk out your door, most of the people you see are normal, good people.
