On Tuesday, President Trump made it clear that he was taking aim at Virginia, especially the horrible damage don’t to the Second Amendment by Ralph “Blackface” Northam. While speaking to a farmer, the president made the comment, “You’ll have nobody guarding your potatoes.”
Which, of course, set off Northam, causing him to fire back and turning the potato comment into the story.
At least, it’s the story the media wants to push.
Following an appearance from a Virginia potato farmer, the president said, “We’re going after Virginia, with your crazy governor. We’re going after Virginia. They want to take your Second Amendment away, you know that. You’ll have nobody guarding your potatoes.”
Potatoes are among Virginia’s top farming commodities, where production of the crop accounted for an estimated $17 million in 2018. Trump previously announced a $19 billion relief program for farmers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis in April, including $16 billion in direct payments and government purchases of meat, dairy, vegetables, and other goods.
Northam responded to Trump’s comment in a tweet on Tuesday, writing, “I grew up on a Virginia farm, Mr. President—our potatoes are fine. And as the only medical doctor among our nation’s governors, I suggest you stop taking hydroxychloroquine.” The president announced on Monday that he was taking the drug, which is unproven as a treatment for the coronavirus, to ward off COVID-19. Northam added, “Let’s all get back to work.”
While the president’s remarks may look vague–who the hell needs to guard their potatoes, right?–it’s really not. He’s touching on a legitimate issue that impacts thousands of Virginia farmers and others in rural parts of the state.
Potato theft might not be a real issue in and of itself. Rural counties are quite different than the Northern Virginia districts that elected Northam to office. In particular, they’re spread out. Very spread out.
Further, they often have understaffed or, at least, lightly staffed sheriffs or county police departments. A single deputy or maybe two of them might be the only people on duty in the dark of night. If something happens, it could take them 45 minutes to an hour or even longer to make it across the county to respond to a call.
And these are the people that Northam and his buddies in the legislature have been working to disarm.
No, potatoes might not require much in the way of guarding, the potato farmers just might.
Yet the media’s efforts to highlight the comments about potatoes hide this fact from the public at large so rather than a discussion about the needs of rural Virginians and how it relates to the Second Amendment, we get this. We get to talk about potato farmers and guarding their potatoes.
Northam’s flippant response was simply picked up by a sycophantic media desperate to run another “orange man bad” story, so desperate they don’t even see what they’re doing.
But, then again, keep it up. The president will appreciate all the help in his re-election bid, especially at a time when he can’t really get out there and rally as he did four years ago. Making the story something other than the real story, like this, will do the job just fine.
After all, anyone with half a brain can tell this isn’t about potatoes. Once they see what it’s really about, they’ll see what we’ve been saying about the media the whole time.
