Politics & Power Quote by Norm Coleman

Coleman’s praise of “our cattlemen” isn’t really about steak; it’s about authority. By stacking “safest, most abundant, most affordable,” he borrows the language of a campaign brochure to turn an industry into a national asset, then converts that asset into political permission: if producers are competent, regulators should back off. The key move is the phrase “I trust their judgment.” It reads like folksy respect, but it’s also a subtle argument against outside scrutiny, especially scientific or federal oversight that might complicate the story.

The second sentence tightens the logic into a feedback loop: “consumer confidence” becomes both evidence and shield. If people are still buying beef, the system must be working; if the system is working, it doesn’t need intrusive change. It’s a familiar play in American food politics, where perception is treated as a proxy for safety, and market behavior becomes a stand-in for public health outcomes.

Context matters here: a politician defending an agricultural constituency, likely amid anxiety about food-borne illness, labeling rules, or trade disruptions (think BSE-era nerves and the fight over testing and traceability). Coleman’s “American public” is not a surveyed electorate so much as an imagined majority enlisted to ratify the industry’s self-assessment. The subtext is clear: trust the people who profit from the product, because doubt itself is framed as the real danger.