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The Press has been unable to work out what Trump meant with his coal comments at Davos. It was a home run with rural voters who understand the issue.

yonkman

The legacy news media has been unable to work out what Trump meant with his coal comments at Davos. But rural voters understand the issue all too well.


President Trump has an uncanny ability to speak in ways that rural voters immediately understand that cleverly misdirects the legacy news media.


His Davos speech is a great example of this. He perfectly identified an issue that we have been talking about for years in rural America.


Trump noted that “Coal is very strong as a backup” and that if the pipeline to a plant got blown up, the company could use coal as a backup. He noted that some companies “have coal sitting right by the plant so that if there’s an emergency, they can go to that [on a] short-term basis.”


He also pointed out that coal is resilient.


“Nothing can destroy coal. Not the weather, not a bomb — nothing,” he said to world leaders. He noted that if a bomb hit your stockpile, it “might make it little bit smaller.” Indeed, if you bomb that pile of coal, you end up with a pile of coal with a hole in it. The rest of the coal still works though. You just burn it.


Most coal fired plants have a pile of coal on site that will run the plant for 2 months. Gas plants that were originally coal fired should have the same backup supply on site and should be designed so that they can quickly switch back to coal if needed. (I’m not sure this is as easy as he makes it out to be, but it is certainly something rural voters have talked about).


Coal is cheap, easy to transport, free to store, and never goes bad. Perfect for a time of war.


I have observed discussions among some of the people who work at those plants (and biofuel plants) that we should increase the coal supply at each plant to a 6 month supply in case of war or some other disruption. Storage of coal is virtually free. Those are very measured and rational discussions to be taking place.


Gas fired plants, on the other hand, are fragile. They rely on just in time delivery of gas – i.e. through a pipeline. They go dark if their gas supply is disrupted. And pipelines are easily disrupted, particularly through sabotage during a time of war. Similarly, a single bomb can sever a pipeline.


It would take a lot of bombs to obliterate a mountain of coal sitting next to a power plant.


It is also economically impossible to store gas in any meaningful way. Coal just sits in a pile waiting.


Coal is the perfect war time fuel.


My reaction to his comment was “Wow, he really listens to rural voters.”


Rural voters are all in on as much renewable energy as we can get. I have a large solar array on my farm and two windmills. Almost every farmer is using solar power somewhere.


That doesn’t mean I think we should be indiscriminately decommissioning coal fired plants or not ensuring that we have significant stockpiles of emergency coal on hand. From a national security standpoint, I would rather go into a war with our electricity coming from multiple sources.


I hear over and over from rural voters that we should have a minimum set of coal capable plants on hand, each with a large stockpile of coal. If a pipeline to a gas fired plant is severed, or if vast swaths of our solar arrays are ruined from an EMP blast, we can restart a mothballed coal plant. As President Trump said, coal is very strong as a backup.


That is precisely what I and several of my neighbors heard in Trump’s comments. To the rural voter, this is simply a national defense issue. Democrats need to pay attention to this.


What did the press say?


The New Republic stated that “Trump’s Weird Rant About Coal at Davos Is Proof He’s Losing It.” Others began to ridicule the President.


I was flabbergasted that they weren’t able to work out what he was saying. I think that was his intent. President Trump is able to speak in language that rural voters immediately pick up, while the same language sends the Press into a self-destructive mess. It helps that rural voters tend to know how things work.


What this does is tarnish the liberal brand. It bolsters the trope that urban elites have really lost the plot.


It also feeds the “fake news” mantra. No, Trump isn’t “Losing It.” He has his finger on the pulse of rural America and our concerns. He also has his finger on the national defense issues that are near and dear to rural voters’ hearts.


There is plenty to criticize about President Trump. Why criticize him when he identifies a real issue? Criticize his approach and point out how you would be handling this same issue much better.


Democrats are committing a grave mistake by allowing Republicans to be the only ones addressing these legitimate security issues about our energy supply and national resources.



Mark W. Yonkman 27 January 2025

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Win in 2024 Reclaim the Rural Vote by Mark Yonkman

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Stakes for the 2024 election could not be higher. The future of our democracy is on the ballot. But Democrats won’t win if they can’t speak effectively to the rural voter.


President Obama proved it can be done in the modern era.   We can do it again.


I’ve had the unique opportunity to experience both sides of the urban-rural divide. Growing up on my family’s farm in Michigan and spending my professional career as an attorney in urban settings has given me the ability to understand and appreciate both perspectives.


My goal is to help Democratic campaigns to effectively reach and persuade the rural voter and to help them consciously build a rural function into their campaign staff to reach this under-represented minority. I’m pleased to make myself available as a resource to support political campaigns in the all-important rural homesteaded states.

Mark W. Yonkman
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