Memory Lane

We were thrown into a mild fit of nostalgia today, courtesy of Slate magazine. In graciously quoting an article from The Rake written by Albert Eisele,
Timothy Noah erroneously cited it as being from the current (December)
issue of the magazine. We certainly don’t mind if Slate quotes us and
makes us look smart and timely. But that essay was published in May of
2003.

Almost from the date we launched the magazine, we’d been
working on Albert Eisele. He is the editor in chief of The Hill, in
Washington D.C., and a native of Minnesota who made his way to the
capitol when he was Vice President Walter Mondale’s press secretary.
Eisele was a high-value target in our magazine’s hunt for interesting
and smart writers working on unexpected stories. Anyway, we thought it
would be very interesting to get Al’s perspective on the long decline
of Minnesota democrats on the national stage. Where were the men and
women who could steward the state’s good name? What had Minnesota’s
reputation become in Washington? How was it possible that the same
state that had produced two solidly liberal vice presidents, and two
radically liberal presidential candidates—how had this same state
produced Sentor Norm Coleman? The same Sen. Coleman who, during this
peacable holiday season, has been making a national ass of himself by loudly demanding the head of Kofi Annan?

We
don’t remember if we asked Al to try to keep his piece light— not too
heavy-handed in terms of partisan preferences. But we scarcely needed
to tell him how to keep ‘er between the fenceposts. After all, he’s got
decades of experience reporting and editing political stories in the
most neutral way possible. In fact, we were very pleasantly surprised
by his assessment of “The Minnesota Model.”

It turns out that
Minnesota’s long tradition of progressive politics has as much to do
with the Republican party as the Democratic party. Nationally, we are
frequently remembered by our historical highwater mark of Hubert H.
Humphrey (and his hand-picked acolyte, Walter Mondale). But before that
generation of red-faced and owlish liberals took the dais, there was a
previous generation of Republicans who had established the standard:
Moderate government, reasonable taxation, widespread committment to the
common weal (especially education), an abhorrence of corruption (and
the appearance of same), embracing the global palliative of the UN, and
so on.

Al Eisele’s essay reminded us that the values we hold
dear here in the blue heartland are values that used to be shared by
both parties, that were actually established by the party of Abraham
Lincoln.

Sen. Coleman should bear the scruffy ears and
remarkable intelligence of a loveable political mutt. But the
inevitable view of him is not charitable. Even party flacks see him as
a flip-flopping turn-coat who once was Paul Wellstone’s biggest
supporter, who then became a Republican for no apparent reason other
than to get elected mayor of St. Paul, who now finds himself spouting
some of the most silly Republican clap-trap. He is a favorite lap-dog
of President Bush’s, which is probably the most obvious betrayal of any
moderate impulse he might ever have had. There are many things you can
say about Sen. Coleman. But you would not say he is his own man.

Our Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, also has the manner and bearing of a centrist Republican like Clark MacGregor or Elmer Anderson.
(The latter, we note, had a John Kerry sign in his lawn in the weeks
before he died, rest his honorable soul.) But the boyish gubernator is
constantly proposing radical-right nonsense such as reinstituting the
death penalty, and weasling out of unflattering revelations about his strange business dealings.

The problem as we see it is that the perceived

shift to benighted, self-serving, I-got-mine Republicanism is being
followed by a real one. But maybe this is a temporary thing. The last
election was a sign, we think, that things are evolving back toward the
middle, at least here in Minnesota. Still, we prescribe a strong dose
of historical perspective, just to insure a speedy recovery. There are
still some nasty viruses abroad.—The Editor in Cheese


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.