THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 126, June 15, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MIDWESTERN RANCHERS' DISCONTENT & THE NOVEMBER
ELECTIONS: AN ELECTORAL TIME BOMB TICKING
IN THE AMERICAN HEARTLAND
By Christopher G. Adamo
FULL STORY:
Republicans are desperately trying to downplay South Dakota’s June 1, 2004, election,
in which Democrat Stephanie Herseth eked out a victory over Republican
State Senator Larry Diedrich for the seat in the United States House of Representatives vacated
by Republican Congressman Bill Janklow, after the latter was convicted of manslaughter and had to
go to prison. However, the grim truth about the results of South Dakota's special congressional election
is that it may portend major problems for the GOP in this part of the country during
the upcoming Fall elections.
Agriculture, the economic backbone of this region, has been hit hard by
wrongheaded policies on the part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and in
particular the apparent hostility of USDA chief Ann Veneman towards America’s
s beef producers. Among those whose livelihood is raising cattle, the
ultimate responsibility for bad policy rests with the Bush administration .
The major controversy surrounds two issues in particular: “Country of Origin
Labeling” (COOL) and government response to BSE (Mad Cow) disease. In both
cases, a reasonable and proper approach would satisfy ranchers and livestock
growers, who overwhelmingly tend to be Conservative and Republican. Yet USDA
priorities appear to be tilted towards big-money lobbying efforts by
multinational meat packing corporations.
The American beef market has not yet recovered from the disastrous
mishandling of last winter’s Mad Cow episode, which resulted in, among other
things, Japan suspending its American beef imports. Had the Canadian origin
of the cow in question been immediately made public (the information was
readily available), the Japanese boycott may well have been forestalled.
Since that time, American cattle growers have had to face the threat of a
government BSE testing program that could conceivably produce numerous false
alarms, any of which could devastate American livestock production. Rather
than rely on a virtually foolproof BSE test, the USDA is planning on a
two-phase process in which a preliminary test that yields immediate (though
sometimes erroneous) results would be followed up with a more precise test,
the results of which may take two weeks. However, enormous problems arise
from the USDA’s intention to make preliminary results public.
If such a program is implemented, the predictable scare that is sure to
follow any inconclusive test holds the potential to completely shut down
American beef exports. And by the time the slower follow-up test negated any
false-positives, livestock growers may lose millions of dollars from a
needlessly panicked market.
Meanwhile, it has been learned that the USDA allowed 33.5 million pounds of
Canadian beef to illegally enter the United States since last Winter’s BSE
incident. Attempting to deflect criticism, the USDA countered that the
actual number is significantly lower, at 7 million pounds, as if that fixes
anything. So, just as the American culture faces threats of an illegal
invasion of immigrants though its southern borders, so are American beef
markets being illegally invaded from the North. And as unwilling as is the
Immigration and Naturalization Service to decisively secure America from
foreign intruders, so is the Department of Agriculture refusing to safeguard
American livestock markets from illegal foreign encroachment.
Nor can American consumers protect themselves against such illegal imports,
on account of yet another wrongful action by the USDA. Efforts by American
beef producers to implement “Country Of Origin Labeling” (COOL), while
successful in the Congress, have met with indefensible USDA stonewalling.
Though passed into law more than two years ago, the USDA not only ignored
its responsibility to implement “COOL,” it actively opposed it through a
propaganda war designed to completely discredit it.
As a reward for this obstructionism, Congress, at the urging of Republicans
who are unsympathetic to small business agriculture, has agreed to delay
implementation of “COOL” for at least two years. But, if its passage was the
right thing to do, why is the present not the right time to implement it?
Clearly, this “delay” is nothing but another stalling tactic, by which
multinational corporations who oppose “COOL” hope to see its eventual
demise.
Anyone who has paid attention to politics in recent years can certainly
remember the famous red and blue map of the United States, printed in USA.
Today to show, by county, those areas of the country that supported George
W. Bush (red) as opposed to Al Gore (blue). The year’s presidential race is
far too critical, and the present polling numbers too close, for President
Bush to risk going into the election contending with a newly established
“blue” region, right in the middle of the country. If he doesn’t want to
face such a prospect, he had better take prompt and decisive action to clean
house at the Department of Agriculture.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
Government & the Economy
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian. Adamo maintains his own Internet website, which is located at
www.chrisadamo.com.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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