The majority of farmers weren't running a farming business--they we're sharecroppers who grew 1 or 2 crops and took the price they could get.
>I believe that leaves the electorate less susceptible to magical thinking, less lazy
This part is just romanticizing the past and fetishizing hard labor. You really think our current electorate is more prone to magical thinking than it was 100 years ago? Chain gang convicts from a century ago should be fantastic at picking leaders right?
>and less inclined to expect the government to fix their lives and less willing to have the government run their lives.
And this part is just demonstrably wrong. The New Deal was very popular among farmers and coal miners--they were most definitely calling for the government to fix their lives in a way we haven't seen in decades.
>I believe that leaves the electorate less susceptible to magical thinking, less lazy
This part is just romanticizing the past and fetishizing hard labor. You really think our current electorate is more prone to magical thinking than it was 100 years ago? Chain gang convicts from a century ago should be fantastic at picking leaders right?
>and less inclined to expect the government to fix their lives and less willing to have the government run their lives.
And this part is just demonstrably wrong. The New Deal was very popular among farmers and coal miners--they were most definitely calling for the government to fix their lives in a way we haven't seen in decades.