My latest column, “When a blue district turns red, the dirt stays the same” is in the Sunday, Oct. 27 Minnesota Star Tribune.
The “Iron Range is shifting to the GOP” story is now a well-worn trope in Minnesota media and political chatter. As a 20-year columnist in the region, I’ve documented every inch of the “red-to-blue” shift. Thus, I am often asked to comment in these stories. This cycle, I appeared in an Oct. 11 comprehensive data-driven piece in MinnPost by Jerry Burnes and an Oct. 15 Star Tribune story by Reid Forgrave about Mountain Iron as the closest-fought Minnesota town in the 2020 election.
This genre of story has been running for almost 14 years. Between the 100,000 words I’ve written on the subject, and the countless journalists and columnists I’ve talked to meantime, I’m weary of the premise.
Political change like what’s happening on the Iron Range happens all over the world. Sometimes change is manifested by the demands of citizens. Sometimes underlying conditions break the relationships and traditions of the past. My column today argues we’re more the latter.
When I was younger, I was really into politics. I believed that the deep “blue” hue of the Range on election maps reflected widespread cultural agreement with a set of political views. I was wrong. And I think people are wrong to make the same assumptions today in regard to the deepening “red” on the map. We are not one thing.
The Range is so much more than just mining, and yet when a reporter asks random people why the mood here has changed, “mining” is what most people think to say. And it’s not like the iron mining industry has suffered under Democratic rule these past few years. It’s been boom times. It’s that boom times no longer deliver prosperity for everyone. Everyone’s trying to get theirs, and can’t. That’s the story.
The demographic and economic conditions facing people who live here caused the breakdown of an old political machine. We are in a period of mild chaos and gnashing about, but when that’s settled we’ll see that the Range ends up a lot like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, something I predicted many years ago.
(Side note, I was *so close* to predicting all of this in May 2010, even before Oberstar lost, but my biases prevented me from going all the way).
Being like the U.P. is not bad. It’s not good, either. I like both places. But it’s hard to live in these places if you don’t have a good job or independent wealth. The voting habits of the population is an effect, not a cause, of the real change.
Read more in the column, made available as part of the Minnesota Star Tribune‘s free election coverage.
The main idea: blessed are those who seek to help people and solve problems, rather than just complain about both. We’re capable.
the strib didn’t allow this comment so I’ll make it here – something to this effect
I am of the opinion that many of us forget how our ancestors who suffered & died making a go of it in the past, creating prosperous farms, forming labor unions etc, have left descendants who are rather entitled in comparison and really want everything handed to them
in addition
They don’t want to fight for their rights, learn how we got them, or even pay taxes to support the country. That country includes the military, social security, schooling, roads & sewers…. AND all the regulations to make it work.
We are lazy. in comparison to them
So if you want to Make America Great Again, Just Do It.