The Honorable Walter Mondale
42 nd Vice President of the United States
24 th United States Ambassador to Japan
United States Senator
23 rd Attorney General of Minnesota
Mr. Mondale:
In 1999, my family moved to Canton, Minnesota in Fillmore County, population 343. I went to high school in Minnesota, then returned to Wisconsin for college. Soon after I graduated college, our country found itself turned upside down by a dangerous political movement that threatened everything that once made America a shining beacon of progress and prosperity. There was, however, a bright spot in the Star of the North, and I moved my Chicagoland wife and newborn daughter back to Minnesota in 2014. We both know Minnesota will take care of our family and our future far better than what the fates have in store for other nearby states, and we are happy to call Minnesota our home.
Through the terrific SELCO library-loan program, I've had a chance to absorb your 2010 memoir, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics. Though I considered myself an independent for the first twenty years of my life, 2010's drastic shift toward neoconservatism has galvanized me into action. I am now active in my local county DFL and I am looking to get involved in future elections from 2016 and beyond, and I want to do my best to carry forward the ultimately vindicated policies championed by Humphrey, McCarthy, Wellstone, and yourself, among others in the DFL.
In reading your book's chapter on the 1980 election, my historian's training was struck by the amazing amount of parallels drawn between the contested primary of 1980 and that of 2016. Your book mentions that so much had changed from the 60s to the 80s in both the American economy and collective consciousness that playing the “old songs” was unfeasible. The question I am begging of you is: Do you think 2016, or possibly a future election, could see a similar dynamic come into play, but in reverse? In candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, we're seeing a growth in support for old-school, FDR- and DFL-style liberalism, so much so that it seems the New Democrat platform is quickly becoming the old band with the old songs.
If used properly, a national democratic (or even a national DFL) platform or slate of candidates could form a Roosevelt Revolution to counteract the Reagan one. We have the youth on our side: you mentioned on page 271 that unemployment approaching seven percent is dangerous, while the BLS reported that youth unemployment was 12.2 percent in July of 2015. You mentioned that adding inflation to unemployment to create a “discomfort index” would cause a problem if you got over nine. Adding the roughly 2% inflation puts us well into trouble territory. Using your own works, it's easy to see why today's youth (now the largest growing voting block) want to give the policies of your youth a try: soaking the rich, investing in infrastructure, and making progress in new industries like renewable energy or sustainable food production. It has worked before, do you think it can work again? Do you think time is ripe for a new group of Mondales, Humphries, Carters and Muskies to bring liberalism back to the people? Your memoir and experiences as Vice President seem to suggest so, and I would gladly appreciate any thoughts you have on the matter.
When I was a boy, my mother uncovered a picture of you she had snapped during the '84 campaign. When I asked who you were, my mother said you were a good man who told the truth, whether it would help get him elected or not. That snapshot now sits at the top of my refrigerator, and when I hold my baby daughter in my arms and she stretches out her little hands, I make sure to tell her “that's Fritz.” You were right. Hubert Humphrey was right. Jimmy Carter was right. Now, it's time for liberals to come in from the wilderness and pick up the good fight once again. I truly believe, after reading it in your own words, that the time has come.
So... what are your thoughts on the matter?
Sincerely,
Doremus Jessup
