God help any destination that the President selects for a rally.
The drive-by media will instantly brand you as a hotbed of all they believe is wrong with this country.
Last week, it was Duluth MN...a town Terri and I love. A town we intentionally chose as our annual Thanksgiving weekend retreat a couple years ago. I mean, hey...with stores like Electric Fetus and eateries like Zeitgeist, what's not to like?
Rolling Stone covered the Trump rally, using a stringer that should have known better (she lives a few hours away in the Twin Cities...and is now apologizing). The story, which has been edited after a virulent backlash of criticism, essentially equates Duluth's primarily white population and struggles in the post-industrial age with being "Trump Country."
Nothing could be further from the truth. As a pushback piece in City Pages said: "Duluth shot his ass down (in the election) by a two-to-one margin. For that, it should be applauded, not insulted."
That didn't stop the reporter from denigrating this progressive renaissance city. All she saw was Trump...and that means bad.
You gotta love a Mayor that punches back, however. In a Facebook post liked by over 6,000 and shared by over 3,000 (how many of yours get that kind of traction?), she nails what is so Duluth: "You saw our downtown as a place where 'every surface is covered with a thin layer of grime.' What you call grime, we call reconstruction dust and progress." Simply brilliant.
And, goes on to question why a magazine would be so dismissive of a town that produced an artist that wrote a song from which it took its name: "Isn’t your magazine named after a song by some guy? Yeah. He was born here."
I understand that this President can go wherever he pleases. But, if he selects your town, be ready.
Duluth was...and will benefit in the long run. As a cool city should.
Good one, Bill.
Posted by: Bill Baker | June 25, 2018 at 13:11