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On Thursday’s edition of Carl Higbie FRONTLINE, Higbie made plain what real Americans already know: farmers deserve our respect and our protection, not last-minute photo-ops from coastal elites. He used his platform to stand with the men and women who feed this nation and to call out the political class that treats agriculture as a talking point instead of a lifeline.
For years rural America has been squeezed by soaring input costs, weak commodity prices, and an ever-growing mountain of debt, yet Washington’s attention only arrives when it’s convenient for the press cycle. The hard numbers back up that squeeze — lenders, local papers, and farm groups have documented rising bankruptcies and record farm debt as producers struggle to keep their operations afloat. The policymakers who spent decades pursuing abstract regulations are finally seeing the consequences of those choices in real farms and towns.
Last winter the administration rolled out bridge payments to try to steady the ship — a necessary short-term fix but hardly the long-term solution farmers deserve. The $12 billion program was billed as emergency relief for producers hammered by market disruptions and elevated costs, proof that stewardship of agriculture will require serious policy changes, not virtue signaling. Washington owes farmers more than a headline; it owes predictable policy and respect for family farms.
Meanwhile, Democrats who once cheered for top-down mandates and green-leaning agendas now feign expertise about tillage and livestock as if a single committee hearing made them stewards of the soil. That sudden conversion smells of politics, not principle: urban politicians lecture about “sustainability” while supporting rules that raise costs and squeeze margins for independent producers. If Democrats truly cared, they would roll back chokehold regulations, secure markets, and stop punishing energy producers who supply affordable fuel for rural America.
Conservatives who live and work in the heartland have known for decades that agriculture is the backbone of our country — it produces not only food but character, self-reliance, and continuity. It’s time for the right to stop playing defense and start setting the agenda: cut needless red tape, defend trade policies that open markets for American grain and meat, and promote energy independence so farmers aren’t hostage to global price spikes. The people who wake before dawn to feed America deserve policies designed by people who understand work, not by intellectuals who read about farms in think tank memos.
Higbie’s message was blunt and deserved: support producers, hold accountable the elites who ignored rural distress, and stop pretending a late-stage conversion to “farm awareness” absolves years of harmful policy. Voters in farm country will remember whether Washington delivers results or more empty platitudes when harvest season comes and bills are due. The choice for patriots is clear — stand with the producers, not the performative politicians.
Hardworking Americans in rural towns know what matters: dependable markets, affordable inputs, honest trade, and the freedom to run a farm without being strangled by Washington edicts. If conservatives want to win back and keep the trust of the heartland, we must fight for real reform, not just rhetoric — and when a broadcaster like Carl Higbie points that out, patriots should listen, act, and get to work.
