Minnesota is Not a Gingham-Draped Caricature

Nor is Tim Walz a “yah, you betcha” hotdisher

I was born in Minnesota and it’s where I am from. I lived there longer than anywhere else, raised my children there, and had my career there, mostly. In my last job, I was an interim manager, which means I traveled to small towns in different parts of the state and lived there part-time while the search committee found the healthcare executive they needed to fill the vacant position I managed.

Governor Tim Walz

The news feeds since Tim Walz was selected as vice presidential candidate sound like Minnesota is a little foreign country way up north there, yah, with Menards Dads and camouflage outfits. Cabela’s is big, they sell camouflage, and there is some truth in that image, but that image isn’t all.

Governor Walz’s honeymoon will be over, and we will discover that he isn’t an accidental politician, that he’s sly and smart as well as authentic and funny. Think about Al Franken tag-teaming with Garrison Keillor, although both had to resign their positions due to sexual harassment allegations, bad timing, the Me-Too movement, and liberal guilt. I have always said that none of us wants to be known for our worst moments, but for some, the worst moments lead off the biography.

Minnesota is also Michelle Bachman, Ilhan Omar, Tom Emmer, and a lot of other people. Minnesota is also the George Floyd death and riots.

My people were Swedish immigrants who farmed the rocky northern land not far from the Mississippi. They were dairy farmers and tied to the herd, milking cattle at sunrise and sundown. The first generation born here were my parents, aunts, and uncles. Some of them moved to Minneapolis and succeeded.

The second generation — that’s me and my cousins — struggled, and came out on top, middle, and bottom, about like most families. We have a lot of teachers, too, as well as some businessmen and women — mostly good, middle-class jobs.

Minnesotans make good vice presidents. We don’t want to be too arrogant, blindly ambitious, and be president, but second place, that’s about right. Even those Minnesota politicians who run for president know that they would be good vice presidents.

When Walter Mondale resigned his Senate seat to become Vice President, good-looking Wendell Anderson was governor. Wendy was handsome and had been a hockey player, which goes far in Minnesota. But he got too big for his britches and resigned the governorship so Rudy Perpich, the new governor, could appoint him to the Senate. Wendell, Rudy, and all the DFL’ers (the Democratic party in Minnesota is the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party) were punished in the next election and turned out of office.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are now the joyful warriors. Kamala claimed that title some years before, so I can’t accuse her of sneaking in old marketing, but Hubert Humphrey, the first Minnesota Vice President, was the Happy Warrior. I am all for joy and happiness. We have a rather dry sense of humor in Minnesota (Al Franken, Garrison Keillor, the Coen brothers, and Fargo), so as long as we don’t tip over into exuberance, we’re fine.

I worked at the University of Minnesota in healthcare, so I saw Somali, other African immigrants, Hmong, and the human spectrum, including rural residents who came to the Twin Cities for care at a tertiary care hospital. It was the kind of hospital that treated difficult diseases as well as the neighborhood residents around the medical center. I learned a lot about intercultural differences and healthcare.

Supine on an icy sidewalk

I do not like shoveling snow or lying down on an icy sidewalk staring up at the sky, wondering how I got into a supine position so quickly. I retired to where there is no snow in the winter. Since I left Minnesota, I have appreciated its virtues of good government, compassion, and strong education.

There is a smugness, a self-satisfaction there that I can do without. I have also seen journalists discuss Minnesota Nice, who don’t understand the concept. Minnesotans are passive-aggressive, and Minnesota Nice is passive-aggressive. It’s not saying anything mean-spirited, but saying something nondescript like “that’s special” when you think “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

Tim Walz is a good politician — I mean that nicely — and so I don’t expect a lot of passive-aggression from him. I mean, he did call out J.D. Vance on the couch in a joke.

He is the biggest new thing right now because no one was paying attention. Senator Al Franken might have been a presidential candidate, was some speculation, before his forced resignation. Senator Amy Klobuchar had thrown her hat in the presidential ring. She made a name for herself by serving Tater Tot hotdish, Minnesota’s classic hotdish, made with cream of mushroom soup, known as Lutheran binder.

Tim Walz was just hanging back in the weeds, waiting his turn, taking on jobs like chairing the Democratic Governors’ Association. Tim is a Lutheran and has doubtlessly been at church basement potlucks. He knows about Lutheran binder.

Well, that’s all she wrote. If ya got any more questions, just ask.