Conformity Continues in Frostbite Falls

Despite extremely rare and totally unexplainable spurts of rebellion such as the election of Jesse Ventura, the ideological default in my home state of Minnesota is the grinding conformity of nanny-statism. Most folks there still believe that government actually works if the right people are running things, and is “our collective voice.” A recent illustration is this story about a new Minneapolis law prohibiting vehicles from idling more than three minutes except in traffic. No doubt while wagging her finger, City Council member Sandy Colvin Roy lectured that cars no longer need a more than a minute to warm up. Does this include the people in them too? When it comes down to it, my bet is that Roy reflects the dominant view in the state. Most Minnesotans would readily risk pneumonia for themselves rather than be branded as selfish troublemakers. Those who stoically endure frostbite, after all, are more likely to become good citizens, as any Minnesotan will tell you.