Don’t mess with the Amish
Yes, the Amish:
The state’s famed “Pennsylvania Dutch” registered to vote in “unprecedented numbers” in response to a January federal raid on a local raw milk farm in Bird in Hand, Pa., a source familiar with the situation told The Post. …
The Amish community saw the move as an overzealous reach by the government and was planning to vote for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose party favors less government intervention.
“That was the impetus for them to say, ‘We need to participate,’ ” the source said of local Amish voters. “This is about neighbors helping neighbors.”
The Amish community rallied around Miller, who cited his religious beliefs as a reason for not adhering to Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
I would imagine there are a number of communities of a religious bent that don’t ordinarily vote in large percentages but who aren’t especially happy with what they see as government overreach.
So…a squirrel & a milk jug are the symbols of the beginning of the counterrevolution. I did not see that one coming.
Here’s my note with the Nebraska Amish; who I didn’t even know really existed.
Knox County is in the NE corner of Nebraska and on the South Dakota border. I was there to be hired as the Special Knox County Attorney to defend the County in a federal court lawsuit filed by Big Wind. But before I was hired, there was a hearing on a conditional use permit filed by Big Solar.
I gave the Board three minutes and then sat down in the front row. Some time after me an Amish farmer spoke. He said he doesn’t even use electricity. He made two points:
1. He didn’t think it was a good business model to invest in a fad.
2. The federal government was planning to hand out $1.2 trillion in free money to solar, wind and battery companies.
On that second point, Goldman Sachs had released a study making that very point about a month prior to the meeting. In fact, I cited it in my Motion to Dismiss Brief. How this Amish guy knew that fact stunned me. Maybe he’s a customer of Goldman Sachs.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
There is a holy way to slaughter animals and the other ways are not holy. Depending on your religion.
Better than sixty years ago, I read “Lion Boy” and “Lion Boy’s White Brother”, action novels in Africa set in maybe the Fifties. In the latter, the two young guys are in the savanna and one shoots an antelope for food. Their Arab guide hitches up his robes and sprints out to cut its throat before it dies., Had no clue, then. And it was in a book set for boys not quite YA. That was then.
So between kosher, haram, halal, and government regs, even meat processing could be contentious.
And treatment of women….
I’ve been enjoying the Amish / Trump story for a few weeks now.
But beyond the surprise value I would note that there are 90,000 Amish in the key battleground state, Pennsylvania, which pushed Trump to victory past 270 Electoral College votes.
I estimate there were 60,000 voting-age PA Amish in this election. Trump only won PA by less than 140,000 votes.
Trump: 3,482,914
Harris: 3,346,149
You do the math.
God bless the Amish!
I also wonder how many Catholic votes Harris lost in PA due to her astonishing snub of the traditional Al Smith dinner benefitting Catholic hospitals.
In her place Harris provided a remarkably tone-deaf Saturday Night Live video which ridiculed a Catholic school girl. It must be seen to be believed:
–“VP Harris and Mary Katherine Gallagher Video for Al Smith Dinner”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6OvqB22Z3A
Utter cringe. I haven’t been Catholic since high school, but I really hated this video.
Given that Trump won the popular vote by five million votes, many, many groups played their part.
But I do wonder how many Christian votes the Harris campaign lost due to the Woke Democrat hostility to traditional Christianity.
Should one also wonder how many fake Harris ballots were cast?
(Or are we too giddy—though this could change—to care?)
If the answer is “Not enough to matter”, then perhaps one might want to re-ask the question (with more “spirit”…or should that be “joy”…?).
And just like that, another Senate Seat flipped to Rep. In PA. Makes you think, right.
Bird in Hand is in Lancaster County PA, across the Susquehanna from where I live in York. On my daily commute through Amish country in southeastern York County, I see plain billboards reminding the Amish to register and vote. Nothing pro-Trump.
I see plain billboards reminding the Amish to register and vote. Nothing pro-Trump.
Hurin3:
The Amish are an exceptionally crafty people. 🙂
Hoe they find Trump is good for what they wanted, could be a new trend
Reading about the Amish coming out to vote made me think about one of the slanders against Trump. Media commentators claimed that Trump would make himself dictator for life, pointing to him saying “just vote this time and you will never have to vote again”. Of course they dropped the fact that he was talking to evangelicals, who often choose not to participate in the electoral process. The same could be said about the Amish, who are very knowledgeable about the world outside their communities, even as many of them choose to limit their involvement in it.
An interesting detail about the Amish vote and Trump in PA I did not know.
I heard a Trump ground game campaigner explain that even the Amish can use a vehicular lift to vote!
The Amish reject 20th century inventions as a rule. But apparently is is OK to ride in a van for the Amish. The only requirement is that the do not drive it.
I have been following the Amos Miller case since the January raid via a feed from Food Safety News.
I try to watch for food recalls of the things I usually buy, and I’ve cut back and eliminated a lot of things (hint: everything you eat will kill you), and I don’t buy raw milk.
(BTW, they also monitor deadly pet foods, even if the dogs do like them.)
Miller doesn’t have the required licenses for selling raw milk, in or out of Pennsylvania, and claims he doesn’t need them; at least one judge has agreed the laws are ambiguous (overly simplified, see the very last link below).
The editor at FSN is very down on raw milk, which does have a history of causing illness and sometimes death, but IMO the people who buy it are willing to take that risk, and people have also died eating: romaine lettuce (grown in manure-contaminated water), cinnamon (adulterated for profit), hamburgers with raw onions (McDonald’s last month, it was the onions), and ice cream (Blue Bonnet).
For the record, and to dispel any illusions fostered by the NY Post and a similar Daily Mail story, he is not a poor Amish farmer on his own; he is a Big Business with operations in multiple states. I note that the Lancaster News post linked at NYP doesn’t mention that either.
Anyway, long story short, the raid was kind of a last straw move by the PA authorities, after a lot of years of back and forth about Miller’s food selling enterprises.
The post most relevant to the Amish vote is this one from February:
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/02/amos-miller-is-seen-as-a-victim-of-government-overreach-but-a-top-fundraiser/
I have some sympathy for Miller, tempered by my strong preference for safe food in my grocery stores, but, as I said, his buyers are not ignorant of the risks — or shouldn’t be — and there are too many regulations and licenses that are NOT necessary, so I can see where the Amish community saw this as an affront to their chosen lifestyle.
Still, them voting for Trump in such large numbers was not on my bingo card.
*******
Some background and more examples of the ongoing litigation; including the latest update; we could be here all night with the chain of posts on FSN.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/01/passing-the-collection-plate-comes-naturally-to-amos-miller/
(The editor is editorializing here, IMO)
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/01/state-ag-brings-civil-action-against-amos-miller/
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/03/judge-invites-amos-miller-to-become-pennsylvanias-115th-licensed-raw-milk-dairy/
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/04/amos-millers-attorneys-put-forth-their-best-arguments/
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2024/10/pennsylvania-wants-to-prevent-out-of-state-raw-milk-sales-by-amos-miller/
@ TJ >”The Amish reject 20th century inventions as a rule.”
That’s what I thought, but I was curious after reading the rest of your comment:
“But apparently is [it] is OK to ride in a van for the Amish.”
So I looked it up. Very thorough explanation at this site.
https://amishamerica.com/do-amish-use-technology/
The Amish are probably gonna like this guy.
https://notthebee.com/article/lunatic-farmer-joel-salatin-reportedly-tapped-for-usda-role-in-trump-administration
Selected by the possibly prospective Secretary of Agriculture Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/11/07/could-rep-thomas-massie-be-the-next-secretary-of-agriculture/76110303007/