Ben Dueholm in our pages and others'
In a Century article published this week, Benjamin Dueholm explains why politicians of Michele Bachmann's ilk do well in the swing states of the upper Midwest. He starts with the fact that Bachmann and Garrison Keillor are from the same small Minnesota town, a place where
the network of local institutions and unspoken compacts that Keillor
once called "small-town socialism" is still at work, inspiring people to
shop at Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery rather than seeking out the lower
prices, bigger selections and wider aisles of the stores in
Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Later he summarizes what's happened to Anoka and towns like it:
