Is it just me or does it feel like Minnesota is on the brink of possibly getting along in 2025?
Nobody got everything they wanted during the November election but everybody got something. MAGA, which dominates greater Minnesota, is happy about Trump going back to the White House, and the Republicans are about to share power in the Minnesota House. Democrats have a lock on both U.S. Senate seats, the governor’s mansion and the State Senate. And the two parties equally share the congressional delegation.
It feels like that elusive quality known as balance is hovering within reach.
This is as great a time as any to identify and work on issues that we all have in common whether we live in Bloomington or Bemidji. Political campaigns are notorious for waving shiny objects to distract us from issues that actually affect us. Now that has all settled down, there are plenty of real issues that we need to talk about.
Here are a few.
We need more affordable housing everywhere. With the cost of today’s building materials and labor, private-market home builders are not going to produce this type of housing, so it looks like we have to rely on the nonprofit sector. The Habitat for Humanity chapter in Alexandria, which is building 42 single-family homes, works with homebuyers who make as little as $20,450 a year. They can do it because they use volunteer labor, receive donations and they’re not looking to make a profit.
We need better dental care. There is widespread need across the state in rural and urban areas. People are missing work because of abscesses, infections and all the other lovely ways our teeth can go wrong and critical-care dentists are swamped.
Groceries cost too much. It was one of the things people cared about in the run-up to the election. Rising food prices aren’t surprising. People have been predicting this for decades. In 2008, historian Paul Conkin said the cost of energy, irrigation, fertilizer and chemicals will continue to drive up the cost of farming and food prices, as would the pace of global warming. Now that higher food prices are here, they’re painful, and voters likely will look to the incoming Trump administration for help.