October 11, 2024

Garnering Amish votes.

I'm reading "The famously secluded Amish are the target of a Republican campaign to drum up Pennsylvania votes for Trump" (WaPo):
Amish PAC aims to garner more votes for President Trump in 2020 in a state both the president and the Democrats are desperate to win. Amish people tend to align strongly on policy with Republicans.... But making voters out of the Amish, who forgo television and the Internet and believe fiercely in the separation of their religious community from government intrusion, may be a steep goal....

A quote from Ben Walters, who co-founded Amish PAC: “The Amish care about religious liberty, business regulation, abortion and judges. Those are four things that the Amish overwhelmingly support President Trump over whoever the Democratic candidate is. We talk a lot more about issues than we do about candidates."

A quote from an Amish woman: "I think Trump — who’s Trump? He’s the president, right? — he’s doing pretty good. Just from what I hear people say, he’s trying to improve things."

45 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Begley said...

I appeared in Knox County, Nebraska in opposition to a solar development. Knox County is about 250 miles northwest of Omaha and along the SD border. An Amish farmer named Levi spoke. He had the hat and a beard. Said he doesn't use electricity, but somehow he knew that the federal income tax credits for solar and wind are worth $1.2 trillion. I learned that same fact (via the Internet) per a report from Goldman Sachs about 2 weeks prior to the meeting.

Was this Amish guy a Goldman Sachs customer? I talked to a local guy and he told me that the Amish are very well informed.

Narayanan said...

their elders have to be to protect them

RideSpaceMountain said...

Dear Amish,

You may not be interested in English culture wars, and the culture wars are not interested in you.

Yet...

Sincerely,
The party that has routinely called you the American Taliban

Humperdink said...

I was taking an Amish teenager home last week. He was listening to the radio and asked if that was Trump on the radio. I said yes and asked if he liked him. He responded “my wallet does.”

They follow the news in NW PA.

Geoff Matthews said...

Uniformed voters are a dime a dozen.
But the Amish a low-maitenance population. They don't ask for much, and what they do ask for (leave us alone) most people want.

Will Cate said...

Ya know, that's even worse than just "garner" ... it's "aims to garner"

n.n said...

Target journolism garners violent dreamers.

That said, the Amish are pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. All American. Hold the garnish.

Dixcus said...

Maybe the Amish don't want a First Lady who punches out his girlfriends.

Leland said...

“We talk a lot more about issues than we do about candidates.”

Some of us do.

CJinPA said...

Exactly. Move that Amish country lady 100 miles to the east and you have an uninformed Philadelphia voter casting her vote with a list of demands for taxpayers and society.

planetgeo said...

I've visited the Amish community around Arthur, IL many times. They're remarkable people. Hard-working, courteous, lots of kids who are also courteous, not dependent on government or anyone else, and lots of American flags lining their Main street. Ergo, no chance any Democrat is going to win there. And if Kamala garners enough ballots to "win," these are the people who will survive the apocalypse.

Come on down and check out the people who will repopulate the planet after the apocalypse. I recommend the fried chicken buffet at Yoder's when you do.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I think it's the Amish who're okay with getting drunk so long as you're using power tools but maybe that's the Mennonites.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

An Ikea tariff 🪑

Gospace said...

If the Amish/Mennonite community turned out in NY, they couldn't tip the state. But there's be 2 or additional "safe" Republican districts.

The government statistics on how many there are here are wrong.

People locally have been saying the number of children here is way down. Last year we had two small kindergarten classes in the public school totaling about 40 children. When I first moved here 25 years ago there were 90-100. There was 1 small Amish/Mennonite school. There are now 3 of them- that I know of and pass on a regular basis. I've heard there are two others. They're chock full of children. There are more children locally then ever before. They're not showing up in government statistics. Nor in the organized sports leagues or youth groups.

Deevs said...

After that quote form the Amish woman, being Amish has never looked more appealing to me.

wsw said...

#garner I feel the same way with 'foster'

Enigma said...

I've visited Amish country in Indiana and Pennsylvania. The small towns routinely have Edward Jones investing offices. Many, many people love to buy Amish-grown food and dairy products. All that cash must go somewhere, even if they live a simple life.

Amish products have a solid platinum reputation, and their McDonald's restaurants have family-sized tables that seat a dozen people. Be fruitful and multiply...and multiply your cash...

RideSpaceMountain said...

“He is richest who is content with the least, for contentedness is the wealth of nature” – Socrates

Anabaptism is what civilization would look like if European civilization prioritized contentedness over nebulous "happiness".

Drago said...
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Drago said...

The Amish farmers are being targeted by the harris/biden admin due to their practices of locally producing and selling their dairy and other farm goods produced in their natural way which causes the government great angst that anyone dare live outside the Mussolini defined "everything inside the state".

See the war on Amos Miller as a prime example.

The Amos Miller case is a lightening rod leading to increased Amish willingness to register and vote for Trump. Any significant (5k to 10k votes) Amish shift from non-voters to voters could matter in a close a race.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Speaking of the Amish, I once went to party where Kelly McGillis did a massive line of coke and then got a huge round of applause by picking up a chess piece from the floor and putting it back on the board using only her vagina.

Humperdink said...

My Amish friend is in his late-60’s. I asked him how many grandkids he has. Seventy, as in 70. I asked him if he remembered all their names. Ah, no.

john mosby said...

Hate to harsh the mellow, but remember that the Amish are pacifists. So they benefit from the violence that they decline to soil their hands with.

The rough man standing ready in the night isnt going to have a straw hat and a moustache-less beard.

Just sayin before you build that pedestal too high….

JSM

Gospace said...

Enigma, I buy rolled Amish butter on a regular basis. From Wegman's. I buy Amish produce and baked goods occasionally from roadside stands.

Kevin said...

Next up: Trump helps raise a barn!

Gospace said...

My Mennonite neighbors recognize that incongruity. I spent 21 years in the Navy. They have trouble comprehending what an SSBN deterrent patrol would be like.

dreams said...

In Hart County, Ky, probably forty years ago a young aggressive realtor new to the county started advertising Hart County farms nationally. Many Amish farmers mostly from Ohio sold their expensive farmland that was being encroached on by cities and suburbs and bought farms in Hart County overpaying by about twenty percent. Hart County still has a fast-growing population of Amish, mostly farmers, and carpenters.

Some years later, some Amish started moving into the northern area near Elizabethtown, KY, where I live. I think the Amish in Hart County are more affluent and more respected.

Hassayamper said...

A hundred years from now, America will be ruled by Amish, Mormons, Trad-Catholics, Quiverfull evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims.

There might even be a pro-natalist cargo cult that worships Elon Musk instead of the Duke of Edinburgh or "John Frum".

The rest of the country will have aborted, buggered, and girl-bossed itself into demographic irrelevance by then.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Well, since 100% of the time since the genocidal Indian Wars ended, our soldiers have fought on other continents, for reasons remote to the interests of the average non ultra wealthy American...

Aggie said...

But..... what do they use to vote? Is there a special driver's license for buggies?

RideSpaceMountain said...

I don't know, but the Mormons should definitely be added to that list. Not only is their in-group cohesiveness as strong or stronger than the others listed, it has a nearer-term eschatology, militarism, and the logistics and leadership infrastructure to back it up.

Everyone hears about their worldwide network of disaster supplies that they maintain for charity (and the end times...), but far fewer know about how their network of well-stocked armories. If shit hit the fan tomorrow, the Mormon Church would be a force to reckoned with.

gilbar said...

As many of you have pointed out..
The future Belongs, to those who show up..
Us English have aborted ourselves

n.n said...

Abortive ideation, wicked solutions, are normalized in progressive sects that exercise liberal license under the guise of scientific comfort.

Hassayamper said...

Yes, they are included in the list I posted above.

Every Mormon I know, and I know quite a few, has personal weaponry. Some of them could outfit a platoon by themselves. Their organization is second to none. In the event of a complete governmental collapse, the Mountain West will be able to restore order earlier than anywhere else.

RideSpaceMountain said...

I see it now...this new blogger format is very mobile unfriendly. I dislike it, not to mention the marking of comments as spam that we're not supposed to talk about.

Political Junkie said...

Kelly was good in Witness. Was surprised when heard she was a lesbian. Maybe Harrison turned her off women?

Vance said...

Eh, it depends, doesn't it? How willing are they to support with food (primarily) those who do fight? If they are all in on sacrificing as they pump out the goods, then that's still pretty good.

Vance said...

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you call us Mormon). Not sure about the armories. Though we do have a lot of well armed people, but the Church doesn't stockpile weapons as far as I know. Food, yes. Financial independence, yes.

That being said, while we are generally pacifist, there is a strong, strong military tradition from the Book of Mormon and some pretty well defined rules for when it's time to take the gloves off. We do have a history in the 1800s of defying the US Army... and winning....

john mosby said...

Tim in vermont, i agree on the pointlessness of most of our foreign wars (Or as Bob Dole put it, Democratic wars). But that actually makes the pacifist free-rider problem worse. The social contract says we vote on stuff and then all support the result, even if we disagreed, even if we die pointlessly. See, eg, the TR branch of the Roosevelts, who all jumped into cousin FDR’s military.

Not sharing in the hardships is especially worse when the hardships bring no one any benefit.

Vance, a lot of farmboys without a pacifist religion would have liked to stay home and crank out crops (and kids). You can usually find their names in front of the county courthouse. Old men and POWs can bring in the harvest just fine.

JSM

john mosby said...

Vance: Winning? Tell that to the multiple wives you dont have. But seriously, I have been told by an LDS VN vet that you guys allowed draftees to count their military service in lieu of their mission. Is that true?

JSM

Enlighten-NewJersey said...

There are idiots in every community. The Amish are no different.

RideSpaceMountain said...

My source was LDS. Very few would ever know for sure anyway. Regardless, your organizational skills in disasters are something to see, and I've seen them myself. Incredibly admirable.

Mom said...

The article at the link is from 2019.

Rusty said...

The Amish just want to be left alone. Repeublicans tend to do that. Democrats like to meddle.