Remember 1998? 

Minnesota was doing so well that we could play a practical joke on ourselves.   

We were one of the most successful states in the union.  The combination of “good government” Democrats – naive, misguided but not actively malevolent – and a Republican Party that in retrospect still hadn’t caught up with the Reagan Revolution gave us a government that on the one hand did too much, but on the other hand kind of left things alone enough for them to work.  

Things were so good that we could elect a professional wrestler as governor.  

And things stayed good, or at least acceptable, until…

…well, sometime after 2010.  I can’t quite place it – sometime between Mark Dayton’s election and 2020 – that that ended.   Maybe it was the fourth tier of taxes, or the takeover of Minneapolis and then the DFL by the DSA, or Walz’s idiotic response to the pandemic.  

But in that time, Minnesota has gone from one of the good states to somewhere between “laggard” and “death spiral”.  

I’m not mongering doom – I think the state can be saved.  But the slice of time where that’s possible is flying on by.  

With that in mind?  It’s convention weekend.   

The DFL

The DFL’s convention is happening in Rochester.   And the only real question is, “will it matter”?  Klobuchar is going to win the nomination and, barring an epic October Surprise on fraud or corruption from the Feds, she’ll likely become governor.   More on that when we come to the GOP side.  

The Senate race – which is no longer a race – is more interesting.  Angie Craig yesterday announced she’s headed straight to the primary, after learning 75% of the delegates were pledged to Peggy Flanagan.   

In 2010, knowing the delegates were insane, Ken Martin stepped in and poured on the money to overthrow Margaret Anderson-Kellihers endorsement at the primary, with Mark Dayton.  Eight years  later, after the convention gave the nod to the Karen twins, Erin Murphy and Erin Maye Quade, as well as actual Communists Matthew Pelikan for attorney general, Martin brought in the money and the public union clout to jam down Walz and Flanagan as well as the relatively moderate Ellison in the primary. 

Peggy Flanagan is likely the weakest statewide candidate the DFL has endorsed in my memory.   She could be beaten – more on that below – and I suspect smart DFLs know that Craig would be a much easier sell outside 494/694.   

If it we were talking about Ken Martin and a DFL before, say, 2020?  No question about it, the statewide DFL leadership would yet again nullify the convention and jam down a more electable candidate.  

But the DFL has changed since 2018 – they took their defeats in 2018 and 2021 (on the police funding question in Minneapolis) as a signal get really serious about taking over the DFL.  And you can say two things about Richard Carlbom; no way, no how does he look like a young Hermann Gôring, and he’s no Ken Martin.   

I wouldn’t put it past the DFL, though. I know if I were a GOP Senate candidate, I’d much rather face Flanagan.  

The MNGOP

The Governors race appears to be a tossup between Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth and Kendall Qualls, although Mike Lindell has been doing well in Central Minnesota and has some strong delegate support as well.   I suspect Demuth will win the endorsement, and I’m going to guess it goes to a. primary.  I like both Demuth and Qualls (Lindell’s got a great story, but in the general he’ll make the GOP long for the good old days of Kurt Bills), and I think Demuth has the lead with delegates so far, but let’s be honest – the real key to this election lies with the Feds, and if they drop a huge string of indictments against key DFLers in October.  And the media will be doing its best to mute even that.  

And it’s a shame, because getting a Republican – any Republican – into the executive branch to check and balance the DFL’s depredations may be the only sustainable hope the state has to pull out of the tailspin it’s in.  

So fingers crossed for the Feds.  

For the Senate race?  

This is the first time I’ve harbored any genuine hope in a Minnesota senate race since the mugging they call the 2008 election – mostly because Peggy Flanagan is such a very weak candidate. 

The three contenders are Adam Schwarze, Michelle Tafoya and Royce White.  

I follow the Buckley Commandment – vote for the most conservative candidate who can win. 

White has his proponents – mostly among the “burn it all down” crowd pushed by “Action4Liberty”.   A4L has cracked the code on weaponizing ignorance of politics and, along with “Minnesota Gun Rights”, profits from defeat. I don’t see him getting the nomination, “rocks and cows” support notwithstanding.   He will , I suspect, have enough oomph to be a kingmaker or to deny any endorsement at all.  

It’s going to be be between Adam Schwarze and Michelle Tafoya.   Schwarze likely has the lead among the delegates, although Tafoya has been working the room pretty hard for someone who is generally considered to be headed for the primary.  

Schwarze has all the things that delegates and activists love – a former SEAL, impeccable conservative credentials, and a vow to abide by the endorsement.  He’s also got next to no name recognition outside party activists, and will have to buy some by November.   

Tafoya has some cons – a stance on abortion that is simultaneously too accomodationist for many GOP activists and identical to Donald Trump’s position (12 weeks), and a “path to citizenship” stance on immigration that is a poor sell at the convention but likely not a problem in Maple Grove.  She’s also got name recognition, is raising serious money, and has at least some polling showing her close to the margin of error against Flanagan.  

I’d pay money to see either of them debating Flanagan or Craig.  

So – who is the most conservative candidate who can beat Flanagn or Craig?

But I have a hunch if the GOP ticket has a major chance of turning things around in Minnesota, it might just start here:

I have no idea if any of this is true – but if I were writing this as a movie, then the Republicans in the legislature, knowing full well that the law enforcement apparatus in the state reports to Keith Ellison and that one might as well report fraud to the state’s cattle herds as the Attorney General, bypassed state authorities completely and went to the Feds.   

And as the extent to which the DFL-dominated executive branch is riven with crime becomes known and more and more DFL officials are frog-walked to Leavenworth, even the densest “soccer mom” in Eden Prairie stats to realize the depravity they’ve been abetting and repents at the polls this fall. 

A guy can dream.  

It’s safe to say I’m not a Peggy Flanagan fan.  She was the ultimate diversity hire – an ultra progressive (by 2018 standards) “minority” woman (we’ll come back to that) to help drag “moderate” Tim Walz over the DFL’s finish line.  She’s been the most visible Lieutenant Governor I can recall in Minnesota history – during Walz’s first term, I think Flanagan was listed as a co-equal, and appeared in the background of all the Governor’s social media (which ended when Flanagan started making noises about running against Walz’s third term attempt befere…well, you know).  

I think the fact that the DFL is going all-in on torpedoing Angie Craig to support P-Flan is the best thing to happen to the GOP in years, in spite of itself; it gives the GOP the best chance it’s had to win a statewide race since the 2010.  

But there’s one criticism she’s gotten, and has resurfaced, that I’m going to sit out:

In my freshman and sophomore years of high school, if I hadn’t had German, Civics, History and music, I’d have likely had a worse GPA.  I was bored stiff.  English class was always 50% literature, which I loved, and half grammar, which bored me stiff.  I knew how to talk and write, for crying out loud.  

In 10th grade I had Geometry.  My six-weekly grades were C, D, F, F, F and F.   So I musta not gotten Geometry – right?

Then I got a “B” on the final, which salvaged a “D” for the year.  

Anyway – I went on to 11th and 12th grades, and had probably a 3.7 – I cared about the classes I was taking, I’d started working at the radio station and so finally had an identity outside of “greasy-haired cello-playing athletically-inept nerd”, and things just started clicking.  

All by way of saying a number one acquires between ages 14-18 doesn’t define an adult. 

A lifetime of being a “public service” leech does.  So I’ll stick with that.  

This past weekend the Strib went after the Minnesota Political Class’s elephant in the room:  what’s the problem with Minneapolis?

I’m not going to do a bunch of pull quoting – I’m not going to pay, and the piece was pretty much meh.  

But I’ve found another problem;  when you try to discuss the collapse of Minneapolis with people under, say, 45, it quickly becomes clear – they have no idea what Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and the state declined from.   

When I moved here in 1985, Minnesota was an economic, cultural and technological powerhouse. It was a destination – which was a big part of the reason I moved here.  

Let’s recount what we’ve lost

In 1984, Minnesota was a legit competitor to Silicon Valley. The top two supercomputer companies – the highest tech of the time – were here, spinoffs from a Cold War defense industry that was a national destination and made MN a tech leader.

It wasn’t just defense. In the ’90s, Minnesota had the densest concentration of medical R&D in the world. Hundreds of companies in biotech, medical devices, bio-engineering and every other corner of medical technology sprang up here; it was called “Medical Alley” for a long time. This concentration of money, technology, infrastructure and talent made the state a business hub. “Wait”, you say, “MN still has a lot of Fortune 1000s!” Sure. Headquarters. But 3M used to have plants all over the place, bringing manufacturing jobs and middle class incomes to places like the *East Side of Saint Paul*. Honeywell, Ford, 3M, Ecolab, Medtronic, Whirlpool and countless other companies used to BUILD things here. And it wasn’t just business – although we’ll come back to that.

Minnesota was a cultural center, too. Everyone remembers Prince; many remember Flyte Time – Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and some of the biggest hits of the era; some of us recall when the Twin Cities were a hotbed of *all* kinds of music, pop and punk and what later become grunge.

And it wasn’t just  music; in the ’80s, MN was the greatest concentration of theater outside NYC, and we punched WAY above our weight in other performing arts – everything from dance to standup comedy.

And there was a film industry – one that actually employed a lot of people, full time, doing Hollywood production for MN prices.

That’s all gone now.

Some of it was external: the Cold War ended, so the big defense companies (Sperry, Burroughs, CDC, Honeywell) downsized. Technology changed, so Cray, ETA and 3M followed suit. NAFTA moved some of the manufacturing elsewhere.

But tax policy was exporting jobs long before NAFTA. 3M started shifting R&D and headquarters to TX in the ’80s; the film industry succumbed to a DFL tax grab in the ’90s, and disappeared overnight. And as to the rest of MN’s cultural scene?

There’s a reason places develop thriving artistic cultures, and it’s got little to do with artists. Look at every flourishing of ANY art, anywhere, throughout history; they all coincide with places and times where there was enough surplus wealth to support that talent.

Broadway didn’t create a wealthy NYC; it was the opposite.

Minneapolis in the 70s-80s was like that – a place with lots of people with extra time and money to support talented people doing cool stuff, and who were inclined to participate in great things. In 1986, Fodors Travel Guides called the Twin Cities “the Athens of the 20th Century”. Hyperbolic, perhaps – but not all wrong, either. Nobody’s said anything of the sort in almost 30 years. We’re just another Midwestern city now.

People like the Strib columnist, and people who take the Strib seriously, are saying we’re “witnessing the birth of a new city – different from the old one, but just as good in its own way.   

Maybe. Sure.

But cities and cultures don’t happen because of wishes. They are responses to economics, policy and demographics. So ask yourself this: Do this state’s current policies foster creation of things – cardiac catheters, R&B records, naval cannon, software, scotch tape, and the ultimate vote of confidence for the future, families?

Or is it just a bunch of people in buildings, just consuming goods and services?   And I’m not just talking welfare stacks – the “walkable city” is nothing but a vision for how people consume goods and services – a genial fantasy that never includes offices, warehouses, repair shops, utilities – or schools, playgrounds or kids.  

Because that determines the city and state you get. MN has become a consumer, not creator, culture.

That’s a problem.

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is talking with Bill GUNKEL, former Republican who is now chairmain of the Inver Grove Heights chapter of “Former Republicans for Ron Paul…er, Dennis Massie”.  

GUNKEL:   Illegal immigrant voting is impossible.   

BERG:  Of course it is.  

GUNKEL: Glad we agree!

BERG:  Of course.   When the DFL jammed down automatic vote registration on issuing drivers licenses, and then passed drivers licenses for illegal aliens. and pointedly shot down GOP attempts to have those IDs labeled “Not to be used for voting”, in a system that allows any voter to “vouch” up to eight other voters in with a – wait for it – drivers license, that was all just to spike the rhetorical ball in the end zone during the “trifecta”.  

GUNKEL:  There’ve only been five examples of illegal voting found in the past 400 years…

BERG:   Er…OK, so let’s say some illegal does vote in Minnesota.  We can’t identify illegals at the polls, and we don’t have provisional ballots, so once a ballot is cast, there’s nothing we can do about it in the unlikely event we do catch them.  Which, if you assume the oh-so-extreme hypothetical that Secretary of State Simon and Attorney General Ellison are in on the fraud, there’s absolutely no impetus for them to do.   Aren’t these “small numbers” small numbers because the system is designed not to catch illegal immigrants voting?

GUNKEL: (pregnant pause)

BERG:   Not to mention the thousands of cases of fraudulent registrations found in 2012, which I’m sure were there just for the fun it. 

GUNKEL:   Illegal immigrant voting is impossible.   

BERG:  Of course it is.  

Joe Doakes, once of Como Park, emails:

Forty years ago, I volunteered to serve as Election Judge for the 1984 Presidential election. Paper ballots. Hand counted. Two judges verified each ballot.   We had one volunteer election monitor watching us count for a while but he got bored and left early. Yes, it took a while – I remember the sun coming up as we were finishing – but nobody in the room had the slightest doubt the count was accurate and fair.

I remember watching lawyers scrutinize “hanging chads” on television for the 2000 election that even the New York Times finally admitted was accurate and fair.

I remember watching poll workers hang cardboard over the windows so nobody could watch the count in 2020. I still don’t believe that result was accurate or fair.

The key difference is transparency.  Why can’t we supplement eyeballs with technology?  

Hang a camera over every counting table, broadcasting to the internet in real time. The whole world can watch. Why not? What is there to hide?

Joe Doakes

 

Because that would risk delivering the undesired result.  

SCENE:   Velma pulls an “Elliot Ness” mask off of the crook, revealing Governor Tim Walz.  

DAPHNE AND SHAGGY:  “It’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz”

WALZ:  “And let me tell you, I’d have gotten those fraudsters if its weren’t for…”

SCOOBY: “Rose Doggone Resky Kids?”

WALZ:  “No, knucklehead, those ICE agents.  I was just about there!”

He was —>this close<—-. 

Look, it’s not possible for me to respect Tim Walz any less than I did in 2022 – when he’d abandoned his National Guard unit, and then spent eighteen months as a pocket Mussolini to deal with a three month crisis, completely trashing the notion of “science” – much less today. 

But somehow he’s still trying.   

The quote speaks for itself:

I don’t have any words to describe my revulsion.

Fortunately, someone does:

How long til Walz or one of his toadies calls the Holocaust Museum “Nazis?”

Part of being a conservative – and a participant in Western civilization, for that matter – is treating people as individuals rather than collectives.  It’s one of the things that makes Judeo-Christian society objectively better than the alternatives.  

But sometimes groups are gonna group. 

Rep. Walter Hudson describes his observations after three years of reaching out to Somali leadership:

He stresses he’s largely referring to the community’s leadership, and with good reason; there are good Americans, and good Republicans, among Minnesota Somallis – because people, as individuals, have the free will to exercise their freedom of conscience.  

But Rep. Hudson is right in saying that the community needs a lot more of them, and they need to actually move the needle within that community – especially since it appears the grifting dollars might start drying up soon, if the DFL doesn’t manage to gaslight its way out of this round of scandals.  

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

The Lieutenant Governor is wearing Somali headgear to show solidarity with the immigrant community being picked on by racist fraud investigators.

 Look at the expression on the Somali woman’s face. Contempt.

 

Posted by Mitch Berg in Minnesota Politics| 3 Comments »