Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest running and most popular weekly column. Capturing the truth each week from heartlanders in flyover states, LN gives voice to the hard-working Americans otherwise ignored by the coastal elites.
Forget about transgender activism this week at the start of Pride Month. Heartlanders will tell you it’s a distraction from the deterioration of the nation under President Joe Biden. This is why the GOP presidential contenders were all over the state of Iowa this weekend bashing Biden and engaging middle America to rally the troops before the early caucuses for the 2024 election. Serious candidates must win in Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire to better the odds of making it all the way to the big show.
Killing the Enchantment
New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment for various reasons: inspiring scenery, majestic mountains, Native American and Hispanic cultural influences, and what was once a very booming economy thanks to the natural gas and oil industry. Unfortunately, that has all but disappeared over the span of the Obama years and the punitive policies of the Biden administration.
On June 2, the president ordered a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling leases within ten miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.
In San Antonio, Eddie Moreno cautioned: “Even the Native Tribes are now speaking out against the economic demise created by the Biden regime.” Moreno is correct. The Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in New Mexico, withdrew support for the 20-year ban fearing its citizens would lose potential income tied to those resources.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last week, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and 25th Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said a tribal committee had passed a resolution opposing the plan. “As leaders of the Navajo Nation, we support the Navajo allottees who oppose the proposed withdrawal of these public lands.” The letter also pointed out that Biden’s ban threatened the “basic needs of elderly culture bearers,” who want to remain, physically and culturally, on the only land they’ve ever known.
Duane Retherford of Middleton, OH, simply stated: “It’s deeper than Biden.”
GOP Grilled Out This Weekend
There was competition, camaraderie, and the smell of charcoal grills all over the state of Iowa this weekend as presidential wannabes swarmed into town like hungry wolves. It’s the first significant and all-GOP-inclusive event of the 2024 political season in the Hawkeye state. Eight, count ‘em, eight Republican presidential candidates were on hand to speak at Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual Roast and Ride. Revving up were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina US Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, author Vivek Ramaswamy, and former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Ernst rides her own Harley and leads the pack, and motorcycles were available at the parade’s starting point, at the Big Barn Harley Davidson. Even Mike Pence knows how to handle a Harley. “One of the reporters just asked me if we’re showing up more in Iowa what our lane would be. I said I’m more worried about the lane we’re going to be staying in today,” Pence quipped, staying in theme.
They rode to the main event on motorcycles in a parade, stopped traffic, and wound around to the state’s fairgrounds. The candidates were cut loose to blend in with an estimated crowd of over 750. They took turns grilling chops, amassing as many occasions as possible of the tried but true grip-and-grin with the party faithful, and made their cases to hundreds of potential Republican Iowa caucus-goers, kicking off a busy summer season of politicking.
But in Sheldon, IA, one man pointed out that former President Trump would not be along for the ride. “I noticed Trump isn’t there he knows who are for him and who are against him,” said Jerry Van der Plaats. “She (ERNST) doesn’t want Trump back in office he would drain the swamp, and she would be gone.”
A battle in the Heartland ensues over who can best win – and then lead – the GOP and the nation.
