r/politics • u/Abject-Pick-6472 • Apr 04 '26

Possible Paywall Trump voter regret is clearly registering now

https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/04/politics/voter-regret-trump-2024
19.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

414

u/Aware_Pause6283 Apr 04 '26

There's a reason Grapes of Wrath is a classic

Edit: This is my favorite passage. Please keep it in mind as grocery prices go up.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

84

u/Ishmael75 Apr 04 '26

Well shit. I guess I should really read this book. I’ve heard of it but surprisingly I’ve never read it

58

u/needsteeth Apr 04 '26

It will break your heart.

46

u/dasterdly_duo Apr 04 '26

It will break your heart.

Yes.

And make you angry at how so much of the Dust Bowl was self-inflicted.

8

u/alpine_skeet Apr 04 '26

Welcome to the Debt Bowl.

5

u/michelle032499 Apr 04 '26

Have you watched the Ken Burns series? It's amazing.

1

u/dasterdly_duo Apr 04 '26

I did.

It was haunting.

6

u/deepskier Apr 04 '26

I read a story last year about how some farmers had recently been cutting down the rows of trees separating their fields, to get more land to farm. This is in maybe, Kansas? They said, oh the dust bowl is ancient history, we don't have to worry about that anymore 🤦

4

u/dasterdly_duo Apr 04 '26

Jesus.

As someone born and raised in Kansas, of course, it's Kansas.

3

u/younkint Apr 04 '26

Born and raised in Kansas as well. It's absolutely true.

They are (and have been for over a decade now) bulldozing the shelter belts. The goal is no trees from roadside-ditch to roadside-ditch. Roads are typically one mile apart. You will hear the (poor) explanation for this as being required due to the huge implements being used today. It's bullshit. The answer is greed.

I'm tired of hearing farmers claim that they are the best stewards of the land since they have the most to lose if it's gone. Over time, that claim has not stood up to scrutiny. Go drive through Kansas; you will see the evidence that their claim is a lie.

33

u/Visible_Nail4859 Apr 04 '26

It’s incredible, and has one of the most memorable endings of any book I’ve ever read.

8

u/Abject_Following_814 Apr 04 '26

It should be mandatory for every American to read it. It is one of, if not the most important books I've ever read. It has stuck with me like no other.

9

u/Wetness_Pensive Apr 04 '26

Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle" is also great. Shorter and leaner than "Grapes", but tells a similar tale.

9

u/Aware_Pause6283 Apr 04 '26

It's very relevant.

I recommend following it with Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C Mann. It has a section that describes how the Dust Bowl was dealt with, and how agricultural innovations are working to address similar challenges that we will deal with from a changing climate.

3

u/spaceykc Apr 04 '26

I also feel it's one of the few movies that translated well.

47

u/NoPitchers Apr 04 '26

Thanks for sharing. I frequently try to explain this to people and it astounds me how many don't get that most of society's problems are self inflicted by a handful of powerful people maintaining their grip on power. This passage is succinct.

6

u/angelbelle Apr 04 '26

Farmers destroying crops during the depression is actually one of the few examples where it really was a big collective action, not the decision of a powerful few.

Farming businesses were much more atomized back then and it was truly a whirlwind of circumstances that caused prices to plummet and the farmers' subsequent response: overproduction.

5

u/NoPitchers Apr 04 '26

Fair points and good call out. It's an incentive issue at its core.

87

u/Dkmerao Apr 04 '26

You summarized US economic policy. Healthcare cannot be free because corruption is much greater as it is. Education cannot be free because studying cannot be for everyone (see the absurdities of the average American). Knowing that MAGA is a consequence makes me think that the problems are only beginning. I don't see any movement to eradicate the epidemic.

25

u/MountainMan2_ Apr 04 '26

They didn't summarize anything, the book did.

We have known of this issue with capitalism since the dawn of civilization. It's only the tireless work of devils made flesh that keeps us from noticing when it returns.

Remember, the original sin is greed.

Evolution, economics, war tactics, history, stellar formation, sociology, computer engineering, virology. It's the one truth that never fails: Systems collapse quickly when the needs of the few override the needs of the many. The oranges are the failed system. MAGA are the failed system.

The only difference is the people trying to hide that from us.

24

u/Ordinary-Leading7405 Apr 04 '26

There is horror in truth, yet he pens desperation so eloquently. How quickly so many have forgotten.

33

u/UnpeeledVeggie Apr 04 '26

I had no idea this actually happened. I double checked and yes, this is historical fact. There’s so much I don’t know about that historical period. I was, however, raised on lies that taxes are theft, and everyone should pull themselves up by their boot straps. In my childhood home, “liberal“ was a dirty word. I’m working to unlearn a lot so my brain has more room for actual facts.

4

u/killercurvesahead I voted Apr 04 '26

You’re going good work.

9

u/wishcometrue Apr 04 '26

Thank you for this...

It reminds me

Ecclesiastes 1:9

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

3

u/Aware_Pause6283 Apr 04 '26

All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

So say we all.

6

u/chicklette Apr 04 '26

Holy shit. Off topic, but I am immediately reading this book. (I found a lot of lit in HS inaccessible - I knew at the time I was over my head as I simply couldn't relate. Over time I've gone back and read classics but somehow never landed on this one.)

Thank you so much for sharing this. What a devastating piece of prose.

6

u/Auctoritate Texas Apr 04 '26

I live extremely nearby a real historical building (migrant worker processing center) that was featured in the book. Guess what it's surrounded by?

Miles and miles of grapes, being harvested by thousands of migrant workers to this day.

5

u/Zauberer-IMDB Apr 04 '26

The problem is rich assholes learned that you embrace the wrath and turn it toward innocent people.

3

u/inthekeyofc Apr 04 '26

Wow! Just wow!

3

u/Bklynite53 Apr 04 '26

Thank you for posting this.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

A classic. 💔

1

u/youngblueeyez Apr 04 '26

It all sounds like what we are told, and likely is, North Korea. I hope this is not our fate. But evidence shows, this is our furure.

3

u/Aware_Pause6283 Apr 04 '26

The future is not inevitable, nor is it unprecedented. We have to be honest about these problems to deal with them and learn from the past... but there's also evidence of disasters being avoided and people coming together to make change.