Minnesota appears to be on the verge of a metamorphosis.
More permits to carry handguns. Fewer highway rest stops.
Changes to graduation standards. Restrictions on abortion rights.
Cutbacks of $1 billion in health and social services. New revenue to come from casino gambling.
Later bar closings. Earlier primary elections.
The term "DFL" might have survived because it's an easy 3 letter combination to use in radio, newspaper headline & TV reports that can be easily heard & understood even when distracted. The term also uniquely identified, I believe, ONLY Democrats from Minnesota, so 'DFLer' was a quick way to ID an in-state politician.
Using 'DFL' flows better than saying "Dems" and wouldn't be confused with "yes, dem ones", something that was a fading fast in my extreme youth, but heard on occassion in the rural 'kick-back' ethnic area that I grew up in.
Also, here is an additional, possibly more factual, source of info from a socilaist website celebrating "long ago" union activity in MN:
Advocate newspaper
May 19, 1997
Farmer-Labor movement owes much to Mahoney
By Barb Kucera '
Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party might never have gotten off the ground had it not been for William Mahoney and the Union Advocate.
Mahoney was among a core group of activists who helped form the party after World War I. And in the 1920s, when the new party had no publication of its own, the Union Advocate served as the voice of the Farmer-Labor movement.
"Mahoney was a major figure in the emergence of the Farmer-Labor Party," said Art Naftalin, the former mayor of Minneapolis who has chronicled Minnesota politics. In 1948, Naftalin wrote his doctoral dissertation on the history of the Farmer-Labor Party; it is regarded as one of the definitive works on the subject.
During his research, Naftalin interviewed Mahoney, who at that time was in his late 70s. Recently in an interview, Naftalin discussed his impressions of Mahoney and his place in Minnesota political history.
"He was really a giant. And he was also quite a controversial figure," Naftalin recalled.
[snip]
The Minnesota Federation of Labor had a policy of not getting involved in partisan politics. Mahoney not only used every opportunity to persuade unions to become politically active, he organized the purchase of the Union Advocate for the express purpose of communicating that message. He wrote numerous editorials outlining how workers’ concerns, be they low wages and high electric rates, or the growth of corporate monopolies, needed to be addressed through political action.
But it was not only union members who needed to be convinced. The farmers had established a strong political presence through the Nonpartisan League. Many were not sure they should abandon their strategy of working through other parties -- nor did they believe they would benefit by combining with wage laborers.
Mahoney argued they had much in common.
"The farmer’s principal source of income is from the labor he and his family expend and for this he is the most poorly worker," he noted.
Mahoney found an ally in Henry G. Teigan, the Nonpartisan League’s secretary and long-time organizer. "He worked closely with Mahoney, with whom he shared similar views with respect to organization and tactics," Naftalin wrote in his dissertation.
Historic meetings
On March 12, 1924, Mahoney and Teigan organized the historic meetings that resulted in the formation of the Farmer-Labor Federation. Mahoney was elected Federation president and Ralph Harmon, an active leader in the farmers’ League, was named secretary.
"Thus was launched one of the most unusual political organizations in the history of American politics," Naftalin wrote. The federation, which included representatives of all elements of the movement, was to serve as the educational and organizational agency for the Farmer-Labor Party.
[snip]
After he failed to win re-election in 1934, Mahoney never again ran for political office. He remained a strong supporter of the Farmer-Labor Party, however, even as the organization began to weaken and splinter.
"There is no justification for the persistent contention and rumor that the Farmer-Labor movement has reached the end of its career," he wrote in 1939. But a few years later, the party "fused" with the Democrats to become the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
[snip]
...Factions within the party, including an active Communist bloc, were pushing for merger.
[snip]
...Art Naftalin['s] Ph.D. thesis, "A History of the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota" is available at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society.
http://www.workdayminnesota.org/permanent/working_life/classroom/untold_stories/lesson10farmerlaborx.php -------
Hope that helps explain a group is never was all that 'clear' to me as a kid either. Only research via the web in the last several years has given much insight, but then, I've never been mistaken for a communist in my life either.