Collin Peterson Quotes
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Some of the people in my caucus, some of the people in the state party in Minnesota have basically said, "We don't want to deal with these guys because they're too conservative," or "We don't agree with them on social issues."
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I heard a lot about the Affordable Care Act, too. About how people in the individual market were getting clobbered with all these increases, which is a legitimate issue.
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Well, the sugar guys have been dealing with NAFTA ever since it passed. Now we've got Mexico dumping sugar that's subsidized by the Mexican government into our market in violation of the World Trade Organization, because NAFTA gave them open access to our sugar market. They claim they're not subsidized, but the government owns half the industry in Mexico.
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Try to un-gerrymander these districts so that you're not packing all the Democrats into one district, so you've got districts that are competitive, so that you've got a shot at electing Democrats. But that's more a long-term proposition, if it can even be done.
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When it [NAFTA] was sold, we were supposed to get two or three times more exports to Canada or Mexico than they exported to us. It's been the exact opposite.
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I am personally saddened and stunned by the tragic events that took place in Red Lake.
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We [Democrats] have become a party of assembling all these different groups, the women's caucus and the black caucus and the Hispanic caucus and the lesbian-gay-transgender caucus and so forth, and that doesn't relate to people out in rural America.
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The New York Federal Reserve is a tool of the big banks.
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Republicans have spent a lot of money redistricting and everything, getting control of these governorships and statehouses.
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You can't have a majority party in Minnesota or throughout the country without [support from] the people in these [rural] districts. Given the position [the Democratic Party] has taken, it's very hard to see how you can do that.
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It appears to me that no one has learned a thing; that Wall Street is still operating as if 2008 never happened.
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[People] think [the government is] coddling people, like when people's feelings are hurt at the colleges and they send somebody in to make them feel better. Stuff like that drives [voters here] crazy.
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I think we are starting to get some information that will allow us to get to the bottom of this, and I hope we continue to work on this until we get to the bottom of it.
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The only thing I can think to do is if the Democratic Party can do what the Republicans have done, which is go in there and take control of these legislatures and governors' areas.
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It was kind of interesting: [People] didn't really want to talk about it too much. And then after the election, it's kind of like they've been unleashed.
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There's no question that [Donald] Trump got elected because of rural America. And our party still is in denial. They don't get it.
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A lot of it is backlash against all this political correctness that's going on.
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I agree with [Donald] Trump: These trade agreements have not been good deals for America, and they need to be fixed.
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[People] don't like the government telling them what to do or telling them how to live their lives.
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I've tried to maintain my independence in Congress. Sometimes that has meant opposing my own party leaders.
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[Rural voters] have a different view of the world than people do in these urban centers.
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You know what the economics are like in Red Lake County. There's no way a family can pay $15,000, $20,000 a year for health insurance and make it work. You just can't do it. It's got to change.
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[Rural people] have a different lifestyle, and they don't want to change it. They're happy with the way things are. It's causing the party political problems.
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The banks run the place.
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What's happened is the Republicans have been smart.
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The [Democratic] party's become an urban party, and they don't get rural America. They don't get agriculture.
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The use of methamphetamines has become pervasive in our country, and especially in rural areas.
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I don't know how you change that. There's hardly anybody left like me in the Democratic Party in Congress. These districts have been so gerrymandered that, in most of them, a Democrat can't win. Somebody like me trying to start off today, he'd never get endorsed. Because I'm too conservative.
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I fought NAFTA when it passed; it has been a big disaster for us, in my opinion. If we can renegotiate that, it would be wonderful.
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[Trade] was clearly a factor.That was a complete reversal of where things are normally at. Usually Republicans are all for free trade.
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