Do farmers who voted for Trump want de facto slaves? Farmer Sarah Taber seems to think so. YouTube...

[Hekate]

?si=_Jz6GjBBKmIi-H89

[alwaysinasnit]

1. k&r Thanks for posting!

[Hekate]

2. She's always interesting

I have given some thought over the past several years to slavery in the modern USA. My thoughts were originally triggered by the Dobbs decision in which SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, and by the reaction of red state legislatures.

As a woman I saw the common thread among these lawmakers of restricting not just women’s medical choices, but women’s freedom of movement between states and within states. When Texas instituted a bounty law that would pay snitches to turn in pregnant women *suspected* of traveling or attempting to travel outside the state to obtain an abortion, I instantly thought of the Fugitive Slave Laws. As time went on and some men seriously proposed that women should lose the right to vote, I realized that for some Americans slavery itself holds a real attraction.

Yes, I do see issues thru the lens of my life as a woman, but it takes no effort to widen the aperture and see how closely this links to the persecution of immigrant workers.

[yardwork]

9. Agreed.

Many white evangelical Christians are extremely racist. In their world view white men are at the top, accompanied by their submissive wives and children. Black and brown people are thought to be descendants of Cain - people damned by their ancestor's sin. Their proper role is as "servants" to the white families and their economy. (Check out the biblical definition of servants - they were slaves.)

Many white Americans constantly try to hide, dismiss, and ignore our history. They tell one another that "lots of places had slaves" and other lies. The facts are that the U.S. invented a new kind of slavery that was based on the lie that some groups of people are naturally inferior. The country's economy depended on this horrific thing and we even fought a war over it. The descendants of those slavers are still with us and right now they dominate our culture.

Margaret Atwood mentioned that The Handmaid's Tale is based on the U.S. history of slavery.

[durablend]

3. I think all company heads that voted for Trump want de facto slaves

They're tired of paying us proles a salary and benefits and want to go back to "the good old days" when people worked for nothing and kept their mouths shut (or else)

[travelingthrulife]

20. Yes, in the 1980s they discovered the concept of dumping those roles in your company

that could be sub-contracted, thus eliminating benefits. My husband was laid off for this business reason and ended up doing sub-contracting for his old company now and again.
Then they thought of the short work week and other tricks that would allow them to not pay benefits.

Before we became known as 'human resources' in HR, there was a measure of respect in the workplace. Do your job well, and we will not fire you. There was a measure of security. Now employees are just widgets to be moved around a Monopoly board.

[Delarage]

4. It's always been the case

Except when unions were strong; then owners shipped jobs overseas where slave labor/child labor was just fine whilst attacking unions here. All the while, the rich were getting richer. No job moves slowed the funneling of wealth straight to the top. Now they own the government, the courts, most of the media, etc. and can just go ahead and bring back slave-wages here.

[cachukis]

5. Greater understanding. Thanks.

[LymphocyteLover]

6. That would be the type of MAGA they are imagining, for sure, and we just have to make sure

these racist freaks don't make it happen

[Crunchy Frog]

7. Wow! Hate to say it but this really kind of makes me hate farmers. They voted for fascism because they want slaves?

[MayReasonRule]

17. You Hate FASCIST Famers Just Like We All Hate All Other Fascists

Fascism is malevolent depravity.

We hate malevolent depravity.

So do you!

[Cosmocat]

8. "slave labor" for farms is delusional at this point

by and large.

There are some things that you grow that still are labor intensive, but the major items like wheat and corn are going to harvested much more efficiently with machinery than with people.

End of the day, what they want is what they have had for many years now.

To be kept afloat by "socialism" with the various farm subsidies and in the case of those crops that do require a lot of human labor to be able to use migrant workers whether they are legal or not, and be able to virulently and self righteously support the party that takes all other forms of public assistance away from people and beats down all the migrants that they don't need.

[yardwork]

10. It's convenient to deport the migrants right before payday.

Right after construction of the building is complete or the crops are in.

[Zackzzzz]

27. My grandfather was fired

just before he retired.=no pension

As far as farm workers, didn't we just see the
National Guard working as gardeners in DC?
For 29 Days?

[murielm99]

11. Oh, joy.

More farmer bashing.

[Hekate]

29. The author is a farmer, & I have found her take on the issues educational & thought provoking

She’s a small farmer, and a farming consultant now with a college degree, but as a youngster she worked for pay in the actual fields alongside people who did not get paid for their work. They were from the prisons. Other people did not get paid either — their wages went to their overseers, the people in charge of seeing they were trucked into the US at harvest time. She’s keenly interested in labor conditions.

I wish I had a transcript of the time she talked about the history of migrant farm labor in this country, going back about a century and a half. They’ve always been a necessity. They used to travel back and forth across the border as a matter of course.

And the time she talked about who actually owns the farms — aside from some people who inherited, there are quite a few city people who need a tax shelter. Just a tax shelter, not “a way of life, “ a big tax shelter. The biggest and easiest crops to grow are soybeans and corn — very mechanized export crops, in vast acres of monoculture.

In my county we do labor-intensive crops, like strawberries, broccoli, and avocados, and ICE has been devastating and terrifying this year. At least I know that much — had no idea about the soybeans before this.

She ran for public office in her state as a Democrat — lost — will run again, I think.

So, listen or don't listen, but I always feel I’ve learned something, which is why I occasionally pass her vids along.

[murielm99]

30. We are small farmers.

We know all types of farmers in this area, including people who farm for those who have tax shelters. My husband's family has always been farmers. My father came from a farming family. We are all Democrats, and I am tired of the farmer bashing here.

[Hekate]

31. I am sorry if you feel bashed by my efforts to be informed. If you listened all the way thru...

…I’d be interested to know what you think Ms Taber got wrong. The broad demographic of farmers? The legal history of migratory farm workers over the last century-plus, pushed by politics in Washington? The labor conditions? (Surely nothing wrong in your own area among your friends, but not so wonderful in California’s Central Valley, according to articles in the Los Angeles Times over the years) Her personal experience of the disparity in wages (starting at zero) and treatment?

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Certainly more profitable.

Capitalism is swell.

[Hotler]

13. Farmers don't like it when their labor has a right to move on or change jobs. That's similar to why businesses and

corporations don't want single payer health care. It allows employees to leave shitty jobs and managers without fear of losing health care.

[travelingthrulife]

21. This is so true. I remember a discussion with the CEO of a health care org

for which I worked. I thought that health insurance should be unlinked from our jobs, because it is a disaster when you don't have money coming in and you also lose your health insurance. I felt we needed a single payer healthcare plan.

He almost swallowed his tongue and said something to the effect of, 'that would destroy the country as we know it'. It's all about the $$. He was a good empire builder. Loved opening new facilities.

[Johonny]

14. Not much has changed since Grapes of Wrath

[MayReasonRule]

18. Indeed, The More Things Change, The More They Tend To Stay The Same

𝘼𝙣𝙙, 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝘼𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚

[Swede]

15. I posted something along the same theme the other day.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220715652

[ChicagoTeamster]

16. Who are going to be the slaves?

I think Trump is going to have all these farm and food processing employees that are being deported replaced by visa employees but he will require a bribe from the company that will get the contract to handle all the recruiting and visa processing. Either that or they will start using prison labor and a bribe from the company that will get the role of managing the selection and placement of prison laborers.

[travelingthrulife]

22. Medicaid patients, kids, immigrants from the concentration camps, unemployed people.

It would give MAGA great pleasure to see a top scientist forced to be a farm hand.

[durablend]

23. You're forgetting

All the liberals they plan on rounding up

[nitpicked]

28. I would think of prison labor myself

After all, Lorton prison in Northern VA had a prison farm until Lorton closed around 2000.

And Louisiana, at least, still has a prison farm.

[MineralMan]

19. Maybe it's time to go back to the days of the truck farmer.

Last edited Mon Oct 13, 2025, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

All family on those farms. You had lots of kids because you needed workers. Let their children pick the crops and take them to town to sell.

Hell yes! Lets go back to the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. Big families working small farms. Yesiree!

[travelingthrulife]

25. Brrrr...been there, done that

Some days I am amazed at all the work farm kids did in the course of their day. Most farms where I grew up did not have adult hired help, just their own kids. There was little birth control back in the old days, so large families happened often.

This could easily be fixed by having better worker immigration processes.

Producing more children just for labor? No.

[MineralMan]

26. I'm being sarcastic here.

Sorry I wasn't clear about that.

[peggysue2]

24. Make slavery great again?

Dear God, if that doesn't say it all.

The rot is deep and dark.