How Minnesota Went From Tom Sawyer to Huck Finn Fifty years ago it was ‘the state that works.’ Now it’s become a microcosm of an America in crisis.

Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/21/22 | Lance Morrow

[MAGA2017]

I wrote an August 1973 cover story for Time magazine that praised Minnesota as “the state that works.” The cover photograph showed Gov. Wendell Anderson, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt, grinning and holding up a northern pike that he had just caught in one of Minnesota’s 12,000 lakes.

The story began with this archaic rhapsody: “It is a state where a residual American secret still seems to operate. Some of the nation’s more agreeable qualities are evident there: courtesy and fairness, honesty, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure and responsibility. . . . Minnesotans are remarkably civil; their crime rate is the third lowest in the nation (after Iowa and Maine).”

Almost 50 years later, I received an email from an old friend who lives in Minneapolis. He began: “Another report from the hinterland. The people of Minneapolis now share online updates of carjackings and other crimes. It would be difficult to exaggerate the extent of violent crime throughout the city. Everyone now knows someone who’s a victim. This will be a huge issue in this year’s elections.”

...What happened? Minnesota once enjoyed a high degree of social cohesion rooted in the traditions of previous waves of immigrants. But as the region has grown and become more diverse, the Twin Cities in particular developed most of the problems that bedevil much of the rest of urban America (crime, unemployment, drugs and so on). The reasons for this are complicated and widely debated. In any case, Minnesota now ranks among the worst states in the country when it comes to racial inequality.

[dfwgator]

“Well I’m Geddy Lee and I can sing whatever I want!!”

[No name given]

As someone born in Minnesota, I am heartbroken and appalled at what my birth state has evolved into, even though I live in Colorado.

[justrepublican]

Wellstone, communist professor at UofM. See tag line

[libertylover]

This will be a huge issue in this year’s elections.”

I'll believe it when I see it.

[DoodleBob]

Years ago, there was an excellent article in The Economist that decomposed the "Minnesota is simply Scandinavia-light" theory. It basically broke down the state into sections, clusters, and pockets of conservatism and leftism.

In some ways, Minnesota now looks like many blue states, where a handful of populous urban blue districts overwhelm the majority of rural red districts.

At the risk of becoming unpopular, I'll say that where I've lived and worked, the introduction of immigrants into the population has been a net positive development. What has been more destructive to the zeitgeist, has been the outsized influence of affluent educated domestics - chiefly white guys and gals, who see their role as being my overlord because of my thoughtcrime. The immigrants, by contrast and by and large, came to America to ESCAPE that kind of tyranny-in-a-suit-and-tie.

Of course, the cities are a mix of people for all kinds of strata, so my sample may be biased and your mileage may vary.

[euram]

The decline of Minnesota started under Hubert Horatio Humphrey. When he was in the senate he would harangue southern senators about their “race problem”, to which they would reply “how many negroes do you have in your state Hubert”. Humphrey and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party went right to work to attract more of them into our state, by raising the amount of welfare benefits and making them available to everyone who can drag themselves into Minnesota. We are now overrun with Somalis, and have recently taken in over 10,000 Afghan tribesmen.

[kiryandil]

No way Tina Smith won re-election for Senate - but her GOP opponent was a spineless coward who didn’t do anything to fight the steal.

The problem with the GOPee is that they'll win political offices no matter what, since the Republican-conservative coalition delivers 60 percent of the vote.

The Demoscat 40 percent gets "fortified" in their Blue Big City strongholds. This is especially noticeable in Minnesota.

Republicucks like Jason Lewis are told to keep quiet and not rock the DC Kabuki Theater boat.

[D Rider]

They always start in great places that work to stack the deck in favor of liberal projects. Detroit was once the most modern city in the world, best restaurants, fantastic museums. Really the top. That’s why is was selected for the housing projects of the great society. By the end of the 70’s is was already a third world sh_thole. Empty Skyscrapers with plywood on the lower 3 floor windows, with broken windows above that. Former mansions on the east river, turned into multifamily hovels. Beware red states, liberals always choose “places that work” to try thier social experiments. Results are always the same.

[Alberta's Child]

The turning point for Minnesota was in the 1990s. I remember this because I was traveling there frequently and even had a job offer on the table in the Twin Cities area after I graduated.

As I remember it, Minnesota stubbornly resisted the whole idea of welfare reform that was taking place in many states after the U.S. government adopted it on a national level. Minnesota had this pathetic, delusional attitude that said: “We are better than that. We take care of people here.”

The end result was a large-scale migration of misfits and losers to Minnesota from every urban sh!t-hole across the Midwest — Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, etc.

I’m glad I never accepted that job offer. Minnesota is filled with some of the dumbest “educated” people you’ll ever meet.

[kiryandil]

At the risk of becoming unpopular, I'll say that where I've lived and worked, the introduction of immigrants into the population has been a net positive development. What has been more destructive to the zeitgeist, has been the outsized influence of affluent educated domestics - chiefly white guys and gals, who see their role as being my overlord because of my thoughtcrime.

I'm on board with this thought.

The Demoscats are VOTING for the underclass in these Blue areas. There's no way to sugarcoat that.

It's a NATIONAL strategy of the Democrat Party.

[catnipman]

the inevitable and intended result of obama colonizing that state with hundreds of thousands of muslim savages ...

[kiryandil]

When we lived in Scott County, our next door neighbor lady, a state employee, hauled out her “Wellstone” yard sign every chance she got.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

[kiryandil]

They always start in great places that work to stack the deck in favor of liberal projects. Detroit was once the most modern city in the world, best restaurants, fantastic museums. Really the top. That’s why is was selected for the housing projects of the great society. By the end of the 70’s is was already a third world sh_thole. Empty Skyscrapers with plywood on the lower 3 floor windows, with broken windows above that. Former mansions on the east river, turned into multifamily hovels. Beware red states, liberals always choose “places that work” to try thier social experiments. Results are always the same.

Then came the riots of 1967...

[D Rider]

Sorry, sorry. I can now see you were on a roll. Sorry to interrupt. ;)

[DoodleBob]

It’s a pretty sick strategy...prey on people you’ve cornered, institutionalize Stockholm Syndrome, demonize Deplorables who’d evaluate you as an individual and not a political puppet, then rinse and repeat.

[ClaytonForester]

Exactly! You nailed it. The descendants of these people are the biggest problem today.

[Savage Beast]

And why is America in crisis? This is why:

Washington--the entire US political establishment and especially the Democrat Party--is a cesspool of corruption.

The news media, academic institutions, many celebrities, and various others are, wittingly or unwittingly, the enablers and/or co-conspirators of these corrupt politicians.

When Donald Trump announced: "The party's over; I'm going to clean up Washington," this corrupt establishment considered this, quite correctly, as an attack--in fact, a declaration of war--on their privileges, criminal activities, and ability to parasitize the American People, i.e. on their cashcow, and they have put up a fight directly proportional in magnitude to the magnitude of their corruption.

The unprecedented magnitude of their fight against him, their determination to destroy him and his family, their propaganda war against him and everything he tried to do to benefit the USA--ALL measure the size of their corruption.

Their propaganda has been relentless, ubiquitous, and successful. Half the population of America has allowed itself to become their enablers.

When the American People wake up to the truth of this, resist their propaganda, and face reality, America will no longer be in crisis, will solve her problems, and will once agains rise to ascendancy.

America's problems are not unsolvable, as the corrupt establishment would have everyone believe. Good old American know-how is still there and is fully capable of solving all of America's problems. The key is truth and facing reality. We cannot solve a problem we refuse to acknowledge.

The corrupt establishment thrives on America's disfunction and on instilling fear and a sense of hopelessness in the American People.

The America People MUST

1. Recognize the truth of all this and face reality.

2. Resist the propaganda and demand truth.

3. Remove ALL corrupt, dishonest people from power.

4. Elect honest, intelligent people to political office, people who love America and want her to thrive.

Truth--a demand for truth--is essential.

When the US Supreme Court refused to examine the evidence of massive fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, the justices reneged on and abandoned their responsibility to seek and find truth and justice, on this most important foundation of the USA.

Such failure and irresponsibility must not be tolerated by the American People. The government is theirs; it derives its just powers from their consent.

The corruption of those in power exists only because of the consent of millions of Americans. They must withdraw this consent immediately.

[FlyingEagle]

Intellectual and actual dishonesty and violence against virtue describe what I read about Minnesota. Good people there need to bring the denizens of evil to account. Imho

[GBA]

If you stay on a road long enough, eventually you’ll get to where it goes.

Minnesota is one of several who are following the same map to the same place and now can’t make themselves slow down, stop or turn around.

Is it a siren’s song they must follow or is it like they’re caught in a tractor beam and are being pulled in?

Or is this being done unto us purposely putting things into place before their night of the long knives?

[Kevmo]

Tom Sawyer
Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk

A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today’s Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don’t put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day’s events
The river
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today’s Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent
But change is
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today’s Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Geddy Lee / Alex Lifeson / Neil Peart
Tom Sawyer lyrics © Core Music Publishing, Ole Core Music Publishing