Apparently the urgent problem in farm country is insufficient enthusiasm. Not the cost of running a farm. The enthusiasm. Somebody fetch a bigger flag; the combine is nearly empty.

AP reports that Trump is visiting Kansas as Republicans worry about turnout among financially squeezed farmers. Diesel averaged $6.30 a gallon nationwide on Friday, according to AAA. The administration has offered relief, including a $12 billion farm-aid package and eased rules for tax-free red-dyed diesel. Farmers interviewed still describe punishing costs and frustration.

I think a party that helped create economic trouble should have to answer for the trouble before requesting a more energetic facial expression from the people experiencing it.

A campaign rally can generate applause. It cannot generate diesel. These are different products, although the White House seems determined to test how long rural America can run on the first one.

The distinction between bad luck and bad decisions matters here. Farmers live with uncertainty that no president controls. Rain does not check party registration. A sensible politician would try to reduce the uncertainties government adds, rather than contribute tariffs and then arrive looking wounded that the welcome is less festive.

The AP reporting describes higher costs alongside damage from retaliatory tariffs. Even Club for Growth president David McIntosh acknowledges the squeeze. When a conservative organization devoted to selling your economic program describes the economic environment as bad, perhaps the missing ingredient is not another recording of the program being sold louder.

This is not an invitation to mock farmers for voting Republican. That is the laziest possible liberal response: watch somebody struggle, announce that they deserved it, and then wonder why your persuasion strategy resembles a car alarm. People should be able to reconsider a politician without first enduring a public ceremony of humiliation.

I would like Republicans held responsible for their choices. I would like farmers protected from becoming the disposable demonstration of why those choices were bad. These positions fit together without any advanced equipment.

The questions surrounding Trump's diesel deal already showed how much more complicated supplying fuel is than announcing it. Now the political response appears to include supplying Trump. He is substantially more expensive to transport and cannot be poured into agricultural machinery.

Democrats have an opening, not a harvest already gathered. Our earlier piece on competitive races in Republican strongholds made that distinction. This new reporting supplies a reason to be specific about trade stability and farm incomes, rather than treating rural voters as a surprise guest appearance in the Democratic electoral map.

Help people keep producing food. Quit making their livelihoods collateral in every presidential demonstration of toughness. And when assistance is necessary, provide it without requiring gratitude for first surviving the policy.

If the administration really wants to increase enthusiasm, it might begin by reducing the number of problems enthusiasm is being asked to solve. The farmer has work to do. The tractor is not interested in hearing that the rally was packed.