The current question of the Supreme Court nominee vis-a-vis the Republican Party brings to mind the late Wendell Anderson? "Wendy?" The cover boy for Time Magazine: "The good life in Minnesota?" I am to an age where it gets easier to cite historical examples or precedent.
So when I see the current Republicans' stance on the Supreme Court nominee, with such bullheaded determination, I can think back to Minnesota in the 1970s. Heaven help us if we use the '70s too much in supplying guidance. But guidance is available in the sense of appreciating how hubris can bring politicians down.
This isn't to say there is any guaranteed outcome at present. The Republicans in their present iteration, as a total reflection of the one person Donald Trump, could come out of this intact and further empowered. I grimace about this but I'm just one person.
I am asking Republicans to look at precedent and how it hurt the Democratic Party. There, did that get your attention? You mean, there was a time when Democrats could get away with some hubris? There was a time they had sufficient power to do that? Oh yes. Like I said, I'm to an age where I can cite some things. I could also cite disco music and inflation from the '70s but those are topics for another time.
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| Wendell Anderson |
So thoroughly did Anderson have the wind in his sails, propelled by the "Minnesota Miracle" legislation of 1971, he thought he could put aside some of the normal rules. So he arranged to have himself appointed to the U.S. Senate. It was clear he had wanted to vault to the national stage. So he did this minus the inconvenience of trying to garner votes. He thought the plurality of support would just be there. And maybe it would have been, had he gone through the chore or inconvenience of trying to attract votes.
He resigned as governor in late 1976 and orchestrated his appointment to the U.S. Senate by a fellow Democrat, Rudy Perpich. All this came about because of Walter Mondale's election as vice president with Jimmy Carter. Like I said, the '70s were different.
Anderson would come up for election in 1978. Here's the deal: our state's news media grossly underestimated the public's disapproval of how Anderson rigged his move to the Senate. I remember the campaign. Anderson's hubris appeared to be compounded by how he missed Senate votes often. He got forced onto the defense by his foe, the plywood peddler Rudy Boschwitz. (Dave Holman of Morris had fun with the name by saying "Boss-wich.")
I recall "plywood peddler" as a term from the Star Tribune which brought some criticism as being dismissive. The Star Tribune in the '70s had real "liberal bias," as opposed to how conservatives chase shadows with the accusation today. I have often used the term "paternalistic liberalism" as the type of left-of-center thinking that chafes on me. I am no conservative today.
Well, the Star Tribune in '78 ran a condescending editorial professing criticism of Anderson for the obvious reasons - the hubris and questionable judgment - while at the same time breezily seeming to assume he'd win. I repeat again: Democrats in Minnesota felt their oats in the 1970s. "We'll continue disagreeing with him in the future," the Strib said in sort of a token-sounding way with an implicit assumption that the hockey player would still be a U.S. senator in position to be criticized.
He eventually died of Alzheimer's Disease in 2016 at age 83. Considering his ambitious hockey background, maybe he had head injuries as a contributing factor. Just speculation but hardly off-base. "Wendy" played defense for the U of M in the early '50s and was on the U.S. hockey team that won the silver in the '56 Olympics. The Minnesota Fighting Saints drafted him as a publicity stunt in 1972.
Perpich was Anderson's lieutenant governor. There was a monumental "wink" between the two as Anderson would resign as governor and then Perpich, as the new governor would appoint Anderson to the Senate. And so, the media may have had furrowed brow over this, but it did not have its ear fully to the ground.
The outcome in 1978? I remember I was hunting with Dad in the Brainerd area when it happened. Over the crackling radio airwaves I heard of the "Minnesota Massacre." Wow!
The populace was unhinged. Anderson and fellow DFLer Bob Short lost for the U.S. Senate. If the media had underestimated the effect of Anderson and Perpich's machinations, they definitely stared it in the face afterward. I still remember the political cartoons, like one that showed Dave Durenberger posing in front of his mantle that had a mounted head of Short in a frame - Durenberger had a look like the classic dashing big game hunter. I laughed out loud.
The laugh was on the Star Tribune which as I recall had an extremely wayward public opinion poll going in. It didn't see the Republican onslaught that was on the way. At the time I didn't really mind the onslaught because the Democrats had gotten too contented with power, an evil whenever it happens with either party.
And today in 2020 my concern is with the Republicans in the cult of Trump. They rule so much in the Dakotas there's questionable accountability. The South Dakota attorney general may even pull off his traffic disaster that took a life. There's a political machine that will envelop him with deference, unless I end up surprised. Of course, you never really know about politics.
So I look at how the national Republicans are ramming through Amy Coney Barrett now, contradicting the logic they gave us when Obama was president. And I wonder: Is this type of hubris and dishonesty exactly like what happened in '78 when the populace tossed out the Democrats in Minnesota? Is there a line that neither party dares cross when it comes to this sort of thing? And does the media often miss the boat in recognizing such waves? Remember the media's shock at Jesse Ventura being elected our governor?
Past may not always be prologue. But the Republicans of today, the Trump cult, should take a look at the 1978 story from here. People really do know unfairness when they see it. Merrick Garland got no hearings. And Amy Coney-Barrett is going to be rammed through, it looks like.
Better start whistling, Republicans: whistle past the graveyard. Anderson faded from public view awfully fast. Eventually he "parachuted" onto the University of Minnesota board of regents, which has been a convenient place for such things. Ask Dean Johnson.
Addendum: I remember that after the 1978 election, Wendell Anderson said in a TV interview that he "hoped to still have a social conscience." That was so 1970s. Talk about "social conscience" today and you're branded a "lib" and run out of town.
Addendum #2: An anecdote pops into my head re. Boschwitz: I was with the Morris paper and photographed the two Boschwitz sons campaigning for their father in downtown Morris. This was post-1978. I remember interviewing them at the restaurant that I think was called Kelly's at the time. Everything turned out fine, but very soon after, Rudy admitted that sending his family around like this was sort of a cynical ploy to show them "mainstreeting," to pull strings with the (starstruck) local newspaper people. Well, like yours truly! But seriously, I remember being with the Boschwitz boys and let me say they seemed happy to spend a few minutes with me, did not seem manipulative! I photographed them on Oregon Avenue with Bob Stevenson and Darrell Dyer. I almost forgot Darrell's name for the purpose of typing this - then it popped back into my head! Eureka. I interviewed Durenberger once at the old Sunwood Inn. But my highlight of the Sunwood Inn memories was shaking hands with Bud Grant!
My podcast for Sept. 29
Let's look at news-talk radio in this election year - that's what I do for my "Morris Mojo" podcast for today, Tuesday. I'm also delighted to share some memories of old-time radio from Ruth Domingo, who wrote a chapter for the heralded Stevens County Historical Society book "A Hard Day's Work." Please listen:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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| Are you old enough to remember this? (mpr image) |
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