The good and wise Sen. Paul Wellstone.

I recently traveled to the Range to deliver fish to old customers like 93 year-old Agnes.

On the way home from Eveleth on Hwy 53 I saw the sign for the Wellstone Memorial, so I took a left, got on Bodas Road and made my way to the edge of the woods and muskeg to the site.

On Oct. 22, 1992, the plane carrying the senator, wife, daughter and several staff members crashed only 18 days before the election. No one survived. I had to go and visit.

It is a powerful place. 

I met Paul Wellstone for the first time in the 1990s when he and a host of others, including Gov. Rudy Perpich, rolled into the DM&IR depot in Two Harbors on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.

He was waving and smiling briskly from the rear of the lakeside train, aimed at arousing support for his reelection run for U.S. senate in 1996. Crowds gathered, handshakes were abundant and the guy never forgot my name out of the swirl of years until his death. I was a small town newspaper editor and he never forgot my name, though we’d only met a few times. I’m sure he remembered just about everybody. 

Wellstone was a font of positivity, a ray of hope for the future of the country. Only a sourpuss would’ve seen him differently.

Recently, President Rumpt, also known as Payosa Loco, the Crazy Clown or the Weasel in some circles, took a theatrical train ride for about a third of a mile to Mandan, North Dakota, to commemorate the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Sourpusses seem to love this guy.

The dedication was hypocrisy of the first sort as the most anti-conservation president was honoring one of the most influential conservationists in the history of the country.

Old Teddy must have been spinning in his grave as Rumpt spoke about  him with his trademark insincerity.

The red, white and blue ceremonial train was provided by a pandering BNSF Railroad, a line I used to ride often many years ago before the demise of boxcars and open auto racks.

Seeing the Weasel waving from the back of the train for photo ops only was reality TV at its best–or worst. A MAGA- induced crowd cheered and the Weasel gloated, one of the few emotions he has. 

When I saw Rumpt in the newspaper waving from the back of the train with that “I fooled everybody” look on his face it was a far cry from a well intentioned Wellstone stumping to keep his seat in the senate.

Mr. Helpful and Mr. Hurtful. Only a sourpuss could like Rumpt.

How we arrived at this point in our history didn’t happen overnight. 

The slow erosion of public trust started years before the Weasel and self conscious computers arrived on the scene.

One day years ago my old dad was scrolling through the channels on the TV and all of a sudden Fox News and Glenn Beck popped up. My brother and I said stop, we had heard about this guy. He was the largest right wing influencer during the Obama years so brother and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He pulled in millions of viewers a day and obviously made a lot of money for the network.

Well, this was the period during his show when he would wave a pointer at a white board on the wall and make his very radical but subtle opinion by setting up a supposition and working his way down the list of points to a conclusion.

Didn’t matter if truth got in the way. On this day he was going to show that Obama was going to morph into Stalin and the country would follow suit if we didn’t put the brakes on this heretical behavior and those millions tuned in believed him.

My dad, ever the voice of reason, said wait a minute. This guy’s argument is flawed from the beginning. His supposition is already a conclusion that has more holes than swiss cheese.

“I know dad, that’s the point,” I said.

“What do you mean that’s the point? His argument is flawed, illogical,” he said.

“That’s the point, dad,” I said. “A captive audience is easily manipulated and that’s what he does, what a lot of these people do. It’s been on talk radio for years. I’m just not sure how so many people became captives in the first place.”

Now I see the government is pushing a distracting narrative about left wing terrorism while the crooked media landscape is dominated by right wing influencers who foment fear and loathing. Absolutely no good comes from those malignant efforts to influence the citizenry.      

Paul Wellstone said we all do better when we all do better. Pretty simple.