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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
In the diverse humanity that makes up the United States of America many groups such as the farmers appear to be both separate and integrated, at once distinct and blended in the common image. Others have been more despised and mocked than farmers, and occasionally some have been equally praised. But none other has been the subject of as much idolatry and contempt as the hayseedy son of honest toil and sweat, the noble yokel, the independent and thoughtful clodhopper, the bucolic philosopher, the industrious sucker, the indispensable hick, and the God-fearing, hell-fire-and-brimstone breathing last stronghold of woolhatted democracy — the farmer. Let us look at his political, economic, and cultural significance.
* This essay is a contribution to the symposium “What America Stands For” organized by the University of Notre Dame Committee on International Relations.
1 Following an analysis of W. E. Hendrix this should be qualified. Some farm families, not now dependent, are unable because of age or health either to move or to expand very much; they may be thrust into dependency by the loss even of one cow. For such farmers the FHA has a special function.
2 “We recommend federal legislation to establish the principle that state law continues to be valid and enforceable in state courts unless there is a direct and positive conflict … with federal law.” AFBF policy, 1957.