The New Minnesota

Being a media wonk, I'm always fascinated by the way tragedies are covered by members of the fourth estate. So in the wake of the 35W bridge collapse, I wasn't shocked to read, watch, and hear about tales of heroic efforts of both rescue personnel and interested bystanders as they risked life and limb to save complete strangers from the wreckage.

After all, in this day and age, the media misses no opportunity to uncover feel-good stories (which have their place -- to a point, but of course the coverage always blows past that point in breathless manner within 48 hours). And maybe living out of the region for two years has given me a different perspective on the matter, but we Minnesotans do love to remind ourselves how "special" we are, how care for our neighbors and an appreciation of the common good is part of what makes Minnesota the envy of the other 49 hapless states in the union. I mean, to hear WCCO/the Strib/local blogs tell it, the average Minnesotan views climbing through twisted wreckage to save a complete stranger about as difficult a decision as letting your neighbor borrow a cup of sugar when he's baking a fresh batch of Tollhouse cookies.

I didn't expect, however, to hear such glowing reports of our trademark resolve and neighborliness from national outlets. But it was out there, from a variety of outlets, best exemplified by an editorial that ran in the Chicago Tribune (and, naturally, reprinted in the Strib, the better to stroke our egos). The gist of the article was delivered in the last sentence of the first paragraph: "Helping others in need is part of the Minnesota ethos, a culture constitutionally incapable of proclaiming, 'Me first.'"

We've loved to believe that of ourselves, going back at least as far as the Time Magazine cover of Gov. Wendell Anderson hoisting a fish from one of our 10,000 jewels that ran back in the early '70s, accompanied by the headline "The Good Life in Minnesota." And yeah, it's a great place to live. A great place to work. A great place to raise your kids. Minnesota will always be "home" to me and I will always love it.

But Time Magazine could just as easily run a cover photo of Gov. Tim Pawlenty hoisting a survivor from the Mississippi River with the headline "The Real Life in Minnesota." Because anybody who's being honest will admit that the "Minnesota ethos" as described by the Chicago Tribune is nothing but a memory. Minnesota's not a terrible place, it's just no longer worthy of its own massive self-regard. The Minnesota Miracle has become the Minnesota Myth.

It's been funny (and sad, and predictable) to read the typical right-wing screechers racing to defend Pawlenty and the GOP that's run Minnesota for the past decade or so. In their minds, to suggest that the bridge's collapse was somehow related to Pawlenty's transportation tax veto and the GOP's constant demonizing of any tax increase is akin to stating that T-Paw pulled out a submachine gun and personally executed the five victims (with eight more missing) of the bridge collapse.

Yes, it is fair to flesh out the links between the "no new taxes" mindset and the crumbling of America's infrastructure. It's fair to consider the culpability of politicians who eagerly aligned themselves with "taxpayer advocacy" groups like the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, knowing how that would play in the minds of potential voters who've been told over and over ad nauseum by the likes of Jason Lewis and Rush Limbaugh that government is evil and you're all being overtaxed.

But it's not fair to say Tim Pawlenty has blood on his hands, because we put him there. We elected the guy, twice, just as Americans elected George W. Bush twice. It's not the politicians' fault -- there was no bait and switch, at least in Pawlenty's case. We knew what we were getting, and that's apparently what we wanted.

So when a plurality of Minnesotans said "me first" and elected a politician because he wouldn't raise their taxes, we were merely following a national trend. It's interesting to hear friends of mine who grew up in other parts of the country tell me they were surprised to hear that Minnesota had a Republican governor and that a no-taxes mentality had swept through the Gopher State.

But Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Wendell Anderson are ghosts. That was the Old Minnesota. The New Minnesota has much more in common with the rest of the country than many of its residents (and expats) would care to admit. Keep that in mind the next time you read a glowing editorial from a national media outlet praising us for an image that's about as fresh as the Vikings' last Super Bowl appearance.