When former Secretary of Agriculture and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) offered introductory remarks at the start of HuffPost and the Open Markets Institute’s Heartland Forum for Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday, he admonished the candidates not to limit themselves to policy details. After all, Vilsack argued, rural Iowans were used to hearing bold promises that politicians often failed to deliver on. “We don’t need plans. We need a vision that will drive and prioritize what an administration does,” he said. Over the course of about two hours, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) did their best to present that vision. The five Democrats, all of whom save Ryan are running for president, tackled an array of concerns that have particular resonance in rural America, from opiate addiction and suicide to climate change and trade policy. But more than any other issue, the Democrats were united in their determination to combat corporate consolidation by beefing up antitrust policy, specifically in sectors like agribusiness that have an outsize impact on American farmers. “I want to see enforcement of our antitrust laws. I’m calling for the breakup of these agribusinesses,” Warren said in her opening remarks. Klobuchar likened the present-day power of monopolies across different industries to the robber baron era at the turn of the 20th century, noting that even the online airline booking industry is mostly concentrated in the hands of two big companies. “We are now entering what is essentially a new Gilded Age and we need to take on the power of these monopolies,” Klobuchar declared.

Damon Dahlen/HuffPost HuffPost Washington bureau chief Amanda Terkel, left, listens as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) answers a question during Saturday's Heartland Forum.

Castro argued for the federal government to expand the way it looks at the impact of corporate consolidation, so “we not only concern ourselves with the end-consumer price and choice but also what’s happening along the production chain ― the impact on smaller businesses within that production chain.” “I’m looking at what’s happening in rural America in regard to the concentration of power in the monopolies ― and you know what we call this in Youngstown? It’s a scam,” Ryan said to affirmations of “yeah” and loud applause from the crowd. “It’s an absolute scam.” Delaney announced that his Heartland Fair Deal, a suite of policy proposals, includes ideas for “doing some things to actually create an antitrust framework that makes sense for our country.” Of course, the prominence of antitrust policy in the forum was not a coincidence. The Washington think tank Open Markets Institute, which co-sponsored the event with HuffPost, The Storm Lake Times and the Iowa Farmers Union, is devoted to studying antitrust policy. Still, the crowd at Buena Vista University responded warmly every time the word “antitrust” came up, suggesting there is a real appetite for politicians who can actually ease the burden on rural Americans caused by growing monopolies. The forum’s focus marks a major shift in the way Democrats talk about the problem of mergers and other forms of corporate consolidation. For decades, Democrats generally put up little resistance to the corporate-friendly legal theories and policies championed by their more conservative colleagues. As long as there was no ironclad proof that mergers that ballooned the size of companies were not raising consumer prices, the thinking was, corporate consolidation was not a major concern.

The problem right now in Washington is not only there is no help for farmers, it’s that Washington is on the side of making it worse day by day. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)