Port: We’re getting the government we deserve
MINOT, N.D. — At the national level, we’re watching a disgraced former president of the United States revel in his arraignment before a criminal court in New York.
However dubious the charges — there are good reasons to doubt prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s case and the wisdom of pursuing it — it’s been repugnant to watch Donald Trump turn the situation into a marketing opportunity.
There’s something deeply, terribly wrong when a politician is so desirous of a mug shot that, when not provided a real one by the authorities, he manufactures one.
Meanwhile, here in North Dakota, where we have a desperate need for economic diversification, a solution to chronic workforce shortages, tax reform, and infrastructure projects too numerous to enumerate here, our lawmakers — a majority of them, anyway — are gleefully pursuing a platform of moral Grundyism.
To gauge by their actions in Bismarck, you’d think that pronoun use is a more pressing concern than a shallow labor pool. That librarians are a greater threat to the peace and prosperity of our state than deteriorating roads and flooding rivers.
