The Party Of Hunger— Let Them East Bootstraps… Voting Red, Going Hungry

How The GOP Betrays Its Own Base— Food Insecurity In MAGA America

Even in the reddest states— the worst hellholes, other than Wyoming (where Trump won every county but Teton and took 71.6% of the vote)— there are still lots of voters who opt for Democrats. In Texas, for example, 4,835,250 people voted for Trump last year (42.5%), more than in New York, more than in Illinois, more than in any state other than in California. So… let’s always remember that there are millions of people who voted against Trump in states like Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Ohio... and that when we read about people in those states losing health coverage and losing minimal food security, those aren’t just Trump supporters.

Yesterday, Rachel Shin reported that grocers in small towns that backed Trump are going to suffer from the partial de-funding of food stamps in the Big Ugly Bill… which is “poised,” she wrote,  “to devastate independent grocery stores that are central to many low-income communities, including those that voted for Trump… could kick some families out of the program and hit the bottom lines of small grocery stores within months. It’s a chain reaction set off in Washington that’s likely to reshape how people access food in more isolated communities even if they don’t use federal assistance.”

She started in St. John’s, Arizona, where voters turnout was very high (70.6%) and where 786 people voted for Trump (79%) and 196 voted for Kamala (19.7%). How worthless are the voters in St. John’s? 75.3% voted for Kari Lake for Senate and 76.4% voted for Eli Crane for Congress. A Democrat didn’t even contest the state Senate seat. Yeah, so worse than Wyoming.

Do the people in St John’s deserve what they’re about to get? Well, not the 20-some-odd percent that turned their backs on Republicans. The rest? I wouldn’t cry if they all were bitten by Western Diamondbacks and Arizona Black Rattlesnakes, which would likely be fatal because of the lack of access to medical care. And not just fatal. The bite from either of these snakes is generally deadly if untreated, due to hemotoxic venom, which causes tissue damage, severe pain, swelling, and organ failure. Without prompt anti-venom treatment, death could occur within hours, with excruciating symptoms. (The St John’s area also has black widows and brown recluses.)

The town’s mayor, Spencer Udall, is a proud right-winger… but he senses trouble. There’s only one grocery store and one local food bank serving over 3,500 people. If the store shutters due to the food aid cuts, the next closest option for groceries is roughly 30 miles away… ‘The businesses that will be affected most by this are the businesses that are most disadvantaged, that are struggling, and you’re going to find that in the rural markets,’ he added… Republicans’ overhaul of the anti-hunger program will lead to thousands of job losses and a drop in revenue across the agriculture, retail grocery and food processing industries. Independent grocers said in interviews that they are considering cutting staff or pivoting to e-commerce and delivery services to stave off some of the anticipated profit loss.

Republican lawmakers, many of whom represent districts with substantial numbers of food aid recipients, defended their megabill, saying the cuts will ultimately help low-income families and their local communities.

“Grocers are good people, hard-working families, and they only make a 1 to 2 percent margin,” said House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-PA), a top negotiator in the plan to slash SNAP. “A significant number of people who currently are on SNAP through unemployment will now be climbing a ladder of opportunity, which [means] they’ll be able to have more resources to buy more food. So our grocers are going to do well with this.”

Thompson said grocers have been “the victim of fear mongering by the Democrats” and the benefits restrictions will be a boon to their industry.

Thompson wasn’t drunk when he said that. He was regurgitating the false Republican Party talking points. Democrats and the few Republicans who haven’t bought into the party line are warning that “it will be difficult to backfill the loss of federal dollars. They will need to consider redirecting funds from existing programs, cutting benefits, raising taxes or finding some alternative method to protect their budgets. ‘I don’t think any state is going to cut [SNAP benefits],’ Thompson said. ‘If they do, the governors and state legislators that do the cuts are not going to be governors and state legislators for very long.’”

Anti-SNAP Eli Crane

OK, how about scumbags like Thompson not being a Member of Congress for very long? Don’t count on it. His North-central Pennsylvania district, PA-15, has no cities and a PVI of R+19. Trump won with 68.6% last year and Thompson beat Democrat Zach Womer 71.5% to 28.5%. It’s’ red enough so that he’s safe even if people start dying of starvation in the streets. Back in St. John’s however, the Apache County county seat, in the northeast corner of the state, radical right kook Eli Crane is vulnerable next year, where he’s facing off against progressive Democrat Eric Descheenie in a district with an R+7 PVI, not easy, but not impossible. You can contribute to Descheenie’s campaign here.

“It's hard to imagine a story of Robin Hood stealing from the economically disadvantaged and giving to the wealthy,” Descheenie told us earlier. “It's hard to imagine because good guys simply don't do things like that. Unfortunately, for those of us in Arizona, District 2, not to mention across the country, that is exactly what took place earlier this month when Eli Crane voted in favor of massive cuts to SNAP benefits, among other critical programs Arizona people depend on. The Arizona state unemployment rate is 4.1%, mirroring the national average. The unemployment rate for Apache County? 8.6%, more than double the state and national average! That, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity for the month of June 2025. Needless to say, jobs in rural Arizona are few and far between, our families need food security and we need a quality leader in Congress to that end, not someone who rolls over to every nonsensical move President Trump makes. I entered this race because I believe I am that leader.” 

But regardless of whether it’s Thompson’s district or Crane’s or any other rural district in the country, “If a community loses a grocery store, especially a rural community, the economic impact is often broader than the individual store’s revenue loss, said Stephanie Johnson, vice president of government relations for the National Grocers Association. In many areas, small grocery stores double as community hubs, hardware stores and stock products from local producers. Each SNAP dollar spent in a rural area generates $1.50 in local economic activity during recessions… ‘The grocery store employs 15 people, maybe more, and if we lose the grocery store, what do those people do?’ said Udall, the St. Johns, Arizona, mayor. ‘It’s not just about people shopping at the grocery store. It has a ripple effect.’”

Sin may have sugar-coated this a tad. Let’s not… Republicans like Thompson and Crane don’t care if small-town families go hungry or if local grocers shutter. These are the same frauds who say they’re fighting “elites” while gutting the lifelines of the rural poor to satisfy their billionaire donors. Their ideology is cruelty pretending to be about fiscal  responsibility.

But there’s a bitter irony here. These very communities— St. John’s, Smethport, Lima, Dothan, Tupelo, all those dots on the map that turned blood-red for Trump— are learning what GOP “freedom” really means: freedom to go without insulin, baby formula, or rent assistance. Freedom to starve. Freedom to die broke, alone, and ignored. So no, I don’t really wish venomous snakebites on them. I wish them something even more dangerous to the Republican Party: a moment of clarity