What Was the Cracker Barrel Skirmish Really About? (Hint: Distracting from Real Crises Facing the Heartland.)

For a week, it was MAGA versus meatloaf. Last month, the rustic restaurant chain Cracker Barrel committed the grave offense of introducing a new logo. Gone were the titular barrel and overall-clad Uncle Herschel, the Tennessee-based eatery’s mascot. In a saner universe, this switch would have been a mundane exercise in corporate repositioning. Instead, Christopher Rufo and Donald Trump Jr. accused the company of abandoning its heartland roots in favor of “wokification.”

Cracker Barrel’s stock value promptly fell by $94 million. Finally, President Trump himself weighed in, taking to Truth Social to urge the casual dining chain to undo the logo change. Later that day, the company announced that it would do just that. On X, one Trump staffer crowed that the chain’s executives had called the White House to personally telegraph their capitulation.

But this wasn’t just another skirmish in America’s never-ending culture war. Instead, it was a deliberate and profoundly disingenuous distraction from the real crises facing the heartland—crises that the Trump administration’s policies are exacerbating. Trump has won rural voters in each of his presidential campaigns, and his share of their vote increased every cycle from 2016 to 2024. But he is repaying this loyalty with policies that endanger the lives and livelihoods of rural Americans.

Take healthcare. The One Big Beautiful Bill’s trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts are expected to disproportionately impact rural areas, where nearly a quarter of the population is Medicaid insured and the program covers almost half of all births. Republicans, alert to the political perils of subjecting their voters to literal bodily harm, have tacked on a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund. But it’s projected to cover just 37 percent of the Medicaid dollars rural communities will lose. Labor and delivery wards, which hospitals often operate at a loss, are especially vulnerable. In Kentucky, one hospital has already suspended the opening of a birthing center in anticipation of the cuts. That this is unfolding under the self-proclaimed “fertilization president” only compounds the hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, Trump’s trade war has whipsawed American agriculture. Facing metal tariffs and weak crop prices, John Deere, which netted record profits two years ago, is now struggling to sell tractors. China, the largest market for American soybeans in 2024, has yet to order even a bushel from this season’s harvest. Last month, the American Soybean Association penned a letter to the president warning that its farmers were at a “financial precipice.” And the gutting of USAID, which last year purchased $2 billion of food from American farms to distribute as aid, will certainly hurt the heartland.

The administration is also cutting infrastructure relied on by rural areas. With “equity” now a dirty word, Trump defunded the Digital Equity Act, which supported programs providing tech access and education to remote communities. Congressional Republicans erased public media funding, leaving at risk 245 rural radio stations, which broadcast crucial local updates and emergency alerts. And Trump has long mulled privatizing the US Postal Service, which could result in cuts to mail service in rural areas.

But Democrats share some of the blame for these looming disasters. The party seems to have all but given up on organizing in rural communities. According to one recent study, they haven’t bothered to name party chairs in a fifth of rural counties since 2016. And in that election year, as well as in 2020 and 2022, a similar share of rural counties hosted an uncontested congressional race thanks to Democratic absenteeism.

Yet these communities are far from a lost cause. In fact, if only 3 percent of rural voters had shifted to Kamala Harris last year, she might have won the presidency.

Organizers are working to change this trajectory. Contest Every Race, which recruits Democratic candidates in areas with little party infrastructure, has pledged to invest $12 million in rural mobilization. In a previous column, I covered The Rural Urban Bridge Initiative’s calls for a 10-part Rural New Deal. The organization has since asked the DNC to contribute 10 percent of its budget to rural and working-class districts. If the Dems had done so last year, $400 million would have been funneled to the cause.

If the right funding meets the right candidates, Democrats can be competitive in rural areas come the midterms. In Nebraska, Dan Osborn is running again as a populist independent after his long-shot Senate bid far outperformed Harris in the state last year. And in Iowa, gold medal–winning Paralympian Josh Turek is campaigning as a “prairie populist” seeking to raise the minimum wage and create affordable housing and healthcare.