Minnesota politics raise some interesting possibilities

By Bev Pechan

Here’s a thought. For many readers, I’m sure, and as well as myself, the 2016 presidential race is already a turn-off. Who can you believe and who can you trust?
I am still in Minnesota. It is a strange place for politics and politicians, but something this wacky just might work. In last Sunday's St. Paul Pioneer Press, a full-page story by Neely Tucker of the Washington Post alluded to a possible Donald Trump-Jesse Ventura presidential ticket. Or not. Both men are known for their outspoken maverick styles, but maybe that is just what this country needs at this point in time. At least you know where you stand.
And I don't say this lightly. Nobody respects a doormat and it seems as though those who keep pushing “political correctness” do not represent us well in an increasingly hostile world.
According to Tucker, who has taken interest from hundreds of miles away, when Jesse “The Body” Ventura decided to run for governor of Minnesota in 1995, he did so on a third party ticket. The reason, he said, was so that he would not be beholding to either major party. He refused to live in the governor's mansion. His slogan contained six words: “Cut taxes. Cut taxes. Cut taxes.”
And did he ever. Those on my property dropped nearly a third. What interests Tucker today, he notes, is the fact that during Ventura’s home-grown campaign for the office, Trump came to Minnesota and studied with great interest Ventura’s campaign style.