>>19779431950s small town minnesota was basically socialist though. Unions and welfare programs were unquestionably Good Things(tm) even during the height of the red scare, taxing the rich was so obviously a good idea that anyone who said otherwise would have been seen as insane or stupid. Religion was a different matter. Antisemitism was mainstream, homophobia was normal, divorce wasn't really a thing. But relative to the country overall, small town minnesota was socially moderate for its time, and economically it was one of the most lefty places in the country.
The hard swing to the economic right was basically a consequence of agricultural and mining jobs vanishing by the 80s, anyone productive fled the small towns for the twin cities and cynicism gripped the remaining population. The right's power over rural minnesota only really reached hurricane force after Paul Wellstone was assassinated and the GOP's fearmongering about race and gender issues became their only publicly discussed policy positions nationwide. Without a significant pool of farm or mine workers, labor unions were irrelevant, so all that was left in politics was screaming about minorities. Without any school kids left, schools shrank and were consolidated and home schooling took off, leaving parents free to teach biblical science and ignore reality.
Of course, small town minnesotans are still happy to live off big gubmint giebs, but in their minds, that's not the same as "welfare" (which is something the "libs" invented to make black people vote for them). Most of them have now bought into the idea that they are temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Bernie Sanders is the bad guy because he has a $2 million dollar house and wants to raise taxes on billionaires, but the T guy is based because he's (supposedly) worth billions and wants to... hurt the right people, I guess? Trying to explain rightoid logic becomes difficult when you try to make it sound reasonable but that's another discussion.
