FARM AID 2025…..
SOCIALISM IN THE HEARTLAND…..
AND THE LAST LEAF ON THE TREE…
Late Saturday night, I tuned in and caught most of Willie Nelson’s one-hour set. Farm Aid 2025 was broadcast live from Minneapolis. The concert was shown start to finish on CNN. As has been his annual custom for four decades now (and counting), the beloved music legend closed out the latest chapter of Farm Aid with poignant songs and sentimental memories. It was the perfect close to a perfect day that blended hope, music, fun, and even a bit of chaos into an 11-hour benefit concert in support of America’s struggling farmers. Note: More about their “struggles” coming in a moment.
At age 93, Willie Nelson is still with us–bless him. He’s writing great songs, playing Trigger, his tattered guitar that looks like it belongs in a garage sale. He tours extensively, stays politically active, makes TV commercials, does card tricks on his traveling bus (YouTube it sometime–magnificent!), smokes a little nature, and performs live all across the country — at the same time still fighting for us and inspiring us all. The phrase “national treasure” is hyperbolic when applied to so many celebrities. But describing Willie Nelson, he fits into that honor like riding in the finest leather saddle.
Willie Nelson is cool in so many ways, I don’t know where to begin. He co-founded Farm Aid 40 years ago. The idea was actually sparked by an impromptu onstage remark by Bob Dylan during Live Aid–Philadelphia in 1985. Soon thereafter, he and Willie Nelson, with John Cougar Mellencamp and others, made the idea into a reality. Since day one, he’s played them all. Who knows how many more benefit concerts there will be, and how much longer we’ll be serenaded with a song and a moment like we witnessed when covering the wonderful Tom Waits’ ballad, “The Last Leaf on the Tree.” The lyrics are worth listening to. Fun. Tender. Truthful. And very moving. I’m sure the song will appear on YouTube soon. Please seek it out. I think you’ll agree — it’s worth your time to watch. When Willie Nelson sang about the last fragile leaf blowing in the Autumn wind, there wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium. There’s also this great lyric:
“They say I got staying powеr
Here on the tree
But I’vе been here since Eisenhower
And I’ve outlived even he.”
Of course, the noble purpose was/is helping America’s farmers. No doubt, many currently face a serious crisis. Their troubles have been made much worse by bankruptcy king Trump’s lunatic tariffs which were so recklessly whipsawed into action that most hurt his strongest supporters — including those who live in rural Red State America. But though Trump has made their economic crisis worse, farming has been in serious trouble for a long time.
So, we much ask ourselves — WHY?
Why is this happening? What’s wrong? No, farmers are not lazy. No, they didn’t make bad decisions. No, they didn’t overspend. No, they didn’t screw up like so many other industries and sectors. In fact, collectively speaking, farmers work harder than almost anyone. They’ve been growing stuff much the same way for GENERATIONS. They work hard. They’re honest. In many cases, farmers own their land. All that said…….SOMETHING’S WRONG.
If farmers aren’t the problem — what is?
When people are breaking their asses to survive and are STILL not making it and so many thousands have gone bankrupt, gee — maybe it’s time to look at THE SYSTEM. Ever think about that? You know — the economic system. Capitalism. Corporatism. Giant investment predators undercutting small farmers. And don’t call it “fair competition.” Not when Big Agri is suing small farmers, locking up patents, buying up distribution channels, banks are repossessing farmland, and deranged menace is stripping away part of the labor force via deportations. Maybe it’s the corrupt economic and tail-wag-the-dog political system that’s screwed working-class people people and made family farming nearly impossible. Those who support corporatism are THE PROBLEM.
The sickest part of this “problem,” is that so many farmers VOTED for the crooks and cronies who make their lives difficult. They VOTED for their own destruction. Yeah, they planted the seeds and then the power weed went crazy and invaded the fields. Now all the sudden, farmers are BEGGING for government handouts. You know, just like welfare.
Oh yeah, that’s the craziest part of the whole shit show with many good people and lots of idiots voting against their own interests. Now, they want government bailouts. See, it’s SOCIALISM when the other guy gets it. It’s a government subsidy when farmers, or anyone else who voted for this moron and believes in unrestrained “free markets” reap the government goodies. Make up your mind — you either understand and perhaps even favor the principles of SOCIALISM (which means providing economic assistance) or you do not. Don’t spew idiocy about the “evils of Socialism” while sitting on your broken-down tractor about to be repo’ed in the middle of a dry cornfield turning into a dustbowl, begging for someone from THE GOVERNMENT to help you. YOU BROKE IT….YOU BOUGHT IT, folks. Don’t expect *me* to pay for your voting MISTAKES.
Of course, though they are a minority in the political spectrum, millions of American farmers are progressives. The upper midwest has a remarkable and colorful history of success with socialist banks, strong unions, liberalism, and the success of working together with government. I presume that many of those farmers, and their descendants were in the crowd in Minneapolis this past weekend, cheering for Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews, and most of the other performers onstage trying to help them, make their lives better, and perhaps even save them. You know — Willie and the rest of them, who are proud Leftists. Yeah. Remember that Willie Nelson supported Bernie Sanders. Twice. Swallow that.
And, that’s the final outrageous irony of the moment. Indeed, the leaves have fallen off the tree of the American farmer and farmland in some places is no longer what it was. There aren’t many left. Autumn winds are coming, and then winter — especially with cut-throat corporations and giant banks usurping even more power from those conservatives who are so enabling of unscrupulous greed and grift.
Just remember — who’s still taking care of the tree and protecting those falling leaves versus who are trying to cut it down.