A Quote by Tom Vilsack

Hillary Clinton was in rural America during the Iowa caucuses, but I think the nature of a campaign makes it more difficult once you become the candidate. There's a messaging opportunity here throughout, not just in the election season, but before the election, the opportunity to underscore what government is doing in a positive way in partnership with rural folks. I think it's a messaging issue. It's being there physically, talking to folks, listening to people, respecting and admiring what they do, and then making sure that they understand precisely what the partnership is.
I think the Democrats have - we really have failed to be in rural America, in the sense of having our leaders spending time talking to folks in rural America. The president Barack Obama has been there, but other than the president and vice president, we have had not a whole lot of conversation in rural America.
People don't understand rural America. Sixteen percent of our population is rural, but 40 percent of our military is rural. I don't believe that's because of a lack of opportunity in rural America. I believe that's because if you grow up in rural America, you know you can't just keep taking from the land. You've got to give something back.
Very few people know that my department is responsible for 1.2 million home loans since I have been secretary. That's 1.2 million families that are living in homes in rural America that would never have homeownership, but for the United States Department of Agriculture's programs. We have to do more of educating people about the partnership that does exist between rural America and their government.
I think one of the things guiding this on the Russia-collusion side, is we've been at this for over a year, or coming up on at least a year. It really intensified after the election with the Hillary Clinton campaign. By the way, speaking of Hillary Clinton, can you imagine what a victory this must feel like for the Clintons? She single-handedly - the Clinton campaign single-handedly - invented this vast Russian conspiracy 24 hours after the election.
It was amazing to see Donald Trump on the night before election, who had been describing Hillary Clinton as crooked and corrupt, in a matter of a moment, was describing her as a fine and dedicated public servant, once he had won the election. So, there was a kind of barbarism all the way around, I think, in this political campaign, in which the issues really were boiled down to very small sound bites.
The Democrats are still not being honest with themselves about what happened to them. You know, a lot of people voted for Donald Trump knowing full well what the baggage was. They didn't care. The Trump election was, in fact, about issues. It was dead-set on issues, and this is what the media refuses to understand. They know it; they just don't want to believe it, and they don't want to acknowledge it. They think that it was an election about Hillary Clinton being a rotten candidate.
Sixteen percent of our population is rural, but 40 percent of our military is rural. I don't believe that's because of a lack of opportunity in rural America. I believe that's because if you grow up in rural America, you know you can't just keep taking from the land. You've got to give something back.
If those were Donald Trump people doing that after a Hillary Clinton election, I think a lot of people be - a lot of that - there would be a lot more anger in the media at the fact that they're protesting a legitimately decided election.
I think we have not done a good job of explaining to people in rural America what is actually happening, number one. And, number two, we're not expressing appreciation and acknowledging the contribution that rural America makes. Where does your food come from? Where does the water come from? Where does the energy feedstock come from? It all comes from rural areas. Where does your military come from? Nearly 35 to 40 percent of the military is from 15 percent of America's population living in rural America. It makes a tremendous contribution to this country. It just isn't recognized.
I think good publicists are just like good mommies - always looking out, making sure folks are comfortable and making sure that folks are on time and making sure that folks are getting what they need and know what they need to do.
I don't think that the folks who are in the middle look at the conversation over whether or not Donald Trump's campaign is racist or whether or not Hillary Clinton should use that term to describe some of his supporters made sense, I don't think that the folks in the middle are looking at that debate.
I think that when you have any folks in our population who live under the threat of violence, who live under the threat of crime, who don't have the opportunity that others have because the schools in our urban areas are a dreaded failure, because of the positions that Hillary Clinton has taken and the people who support her, that I think any candidate should speak out to say that that type of thing is unacceptable.
Every year, I volunteer with Remote Area Medical mobile clinics to provide care to folks in rural Virginia. They do incredible work. But I'm the first to admit that treating people once a year at an annual clinic isn't the ideal way to provide healthcare. We should be investing in long-term, permanent solutions to rural health.
We know from this book entitled... What is it? Surrendered? Succumbed? I can never remember the title perform. And we learn from this book that 24 hours after the election, the Hillary Clinton campaign decided to blame their defeat on the Russians colluding with Trump to affect the outcome of the election. And that allegation ends up being taken so seriously by so many supposedly rational people that now even so-called Republicans are talking about impeaching Donald Trump.
Really, running an underdog, insurgent political campaign against an opponent many folks think can't be beat, and going out and meeting folks and talking about your ideas for America and Washington, is a lot of fun and a real privilege.
I think, first and foremost, showing up, making sure that Democrats focus not just on elections, not just on presidential elections, but we begin the process of rebuilding the infrastructure of the party at the grassroots. We begin going out to all those rural counties and begin having a conversation with rural voters and making sure that we hear their concerns, hear their complaints, and also educate them about what we are doing, making sure that we focus on state legislative races, not just congressional, Senate, governor, and presidential races.
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