Showing ’em how it’s done
“American carnage” was an unlikely inauguration theme. It had the merit of being memorable, even if it was “some weird shit.” And in unlikely ways prophetic. Just the sort of thing that appeals to radicalized Independent Charismatics.
So what is happening in Minnesota under DFL Gov. Tim Walz is easily lost in the “carnage” fallout, rightward lurch of red-state legislatures, revanchist backlash, and Beltway hostage-taking. E.J. Dionne wants to be sure that doesn’t happen. Is the “avalanche of progressive legislation” passed with a “two-vote Democratic majority in the Minnesota House and one-vote advantage in the state Senate” a “Minnesota Miracle”? Dionne cites a list from the MinnPost:
“Democrats codified abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, sick leave, transgender rights protections, drivers licenses for undocumented residents, restoration of voting rights for people when they are released from prison or jail, wider voting access, one-time rebates, a tax credit aimed at low-income parents with kids, and a $1 billion investment in affordable housing including for rental assistance.”
Reporters Peter Callaghan and Walker Orenstein are not done:
“Also adopted were background checks for private gun transfers and a red-flag warning system to take guns from people deemed by a judge to be a threat to themselves or others. DFL lawmakers banned conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, legalized recreational marijuana, expanded education funding, required a carbon-free electric grid by 2040, adopted a new reading curricula based on phonics, passed a massive $2.58 billion capital construction package and, at the insistence of Republicans, a $300 million emergency infusion of money to nursing homes.”
Dionne adds:
“I thought this would be a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it should be viewed that way,” Walz told me. “And I’ve always said you don’t win elections to bank political capital. You win elections to burn the capital to improve lives.”
Use it or lose it.
One other lesson for states that want to emulate Minnesota: Keep in mind what Long called “the Wellstone Triangle,” a governing concept framed by U.S. Sen. Paul D. Wellstone.
Long explained: “You need good ideas. … You need elected politicians who are going to be supporting those ideas, and then you need outside organizing for elections and to support those votes.” All three are key to getting things done. In Minnesota, key players included unions, environmental groups and faith-based organizers in the appropriately named Isaiah organization. In the run-up to the session, the outside groups were brought into the task of crafting an agenda.
Democrats in the state are known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from their merger with a third party in the 1940s. True to the name, the party’s agenda combined social concerns such as abortion rights with what Long called “bread-and-butter, populist things that sell everywhere in the state.”
Whew! I’d swap that for the wrecking crew running my state. Likely David Pepper would say the same of Ohio where the GOP-led legislature is trying to roll back constituents’ right to modify their state constitution by citizen referendum. (People there want to guarantee abortion rights.)
