Today I conclude my three part series on generational shifts that might influence races up and down this year’s Democratic (and, indirectly, Republican) ticket. Why? Well, I like to look at things through a historical lens and while history is known for taking a long time to transpire, there’s usually a tipping point where a lot of things happen (or are patently rejected until another tipping point to follow) that ushers in the bulk of the change. This year has the potential of being such a tipping point here in Minnesota, on many levels.
This morning I look at how generational politics are manifesting up north on the Iron Range and in Duluth. Perhaps I’m more sensitive to the idea of generational changes because my whole political sensibility and experience is based in northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, a place ravaged by economic decline during the time I grew up in the 1980s. As the late Minnesota writer Paul Gruchow wrote in his essay “What We Teach Our Rural Children”:
We raise our most capable rural children from the beginning to expect that as soon as possible they will leave and that if they are at all successful, they will never return. We impose upon them, in effect, a kind of homelessness. The work of reviving rural communities will begin when we can imagine a rural future that makes a place for at least some of our best and brightest children, when they are welcome to be at home among us. Only then will we be serious about any future at all.
This subject of generational angst on the Iron Range is the topic of my upcoming book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” due out from Red Step Press this fall.
I’ve written much of the generational gap that exists here on the Iron Range. Almost everyone involved in Range politics right now comes from the Baby Boomer or Traditional generations. GenXers and Millennials are involved, but in deeply stagnant numbers. At political functions I look left and I look right and I am often the only one in my 20s (usually the only one under 40) time and time again.
This story is changing, somewhat. At our DFL county convention, young people turned out in large numbers (often because of the Obama campaign) and several of them were elected state delegates. Still, few have integrated with the much older apparatus that actually does the business of running the local DFL party. Speaking from experience, the initial act of walking into a room filled with people your parents’ age or older takes courage, unless your numbers are great, and on the Range the involvement of young adults in political leadership is in a state of stagnation.
In Duluth, young DFL leaders are stepping up in greater numbers (because of the larger population) and you’re seeing more new faces involved in the local political structure there.
There is no better example of the changes (and/or battles) going on in Duluth than in the DFL primary election in the strongly Democratic West Duluth district 7B. Longtime State Rep. Mike Jaros announced his retirement just a month ago and five DFLers filed for his seat. Knowing many of the players, following the race closely, and having gone to Duluth just this week, I see two front runners emerging in the race: Duluth city councilor Roger Reinert, 37, and union organizer Marsh Stenersen, 61. The other candidates, Dan Maryland, John Derbis and Brandon Clokey deserve to be heard (and will be heard here at MinnesotaBrown) but this is the honest assessment I can give right now. Things can change.
Reinert and Stenersen both strike me as top shelf DFL candidates, so I’m not going to select a favorite here. And both of them have appeal across the spectrum of likely DFL primary voters. But the contrast between them, their top supporters and the whole mood of the electorate is indicative of the generational struggle going on right now in Duluth DFL politics. I’ve heard many young(er) people complain that nothing gets done under the status quo and other, somewhat less young, people complain that the history and background that has gotten the DFL party where it is locally is being forgotten because of fads and career opportunism. These attitudes are not about these specific candidates, but extend much more broadly. Still, I’ve got a feeling that this conflict will be played out in the debates, forums and voting booths of Duluth’s DFL 7B primary.
And so, whether we’re talking about the Iron Range, West Duluth’s 7B district, the Senate race or the Presidential race, the question is how much conventional wisdom will remain true, and how much is going to change this year. I don’t mean to place an excessive amount of importance on age, more so I intend to draw a line between those looking backwards and those looking forward.
Nationally, the question isn’t “is America ready for a black president, woman president, old president or (name of group) president?” The truth is that America will, either this year or another, elect a black president. And a woman president. And a black woman president. And an old black woman amputee president with robot arms and legs. (And she’ll be a Republican). Her successor could be ¼ black, ¼ Chinese, ¼ Hispanic and ¼ Iron Ranger (my great-grandson?) And all the people who might be worked into a tizzy about this will be dead. Long dead. But how fast is this change going to occur? Most important, what will this change mean?
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