Wherefore Art Thou Midwestern Values?

Despite the seeming dominance of both the 2012 presidential race and the death of Osama Bin Laden, perhaps the most fascinating political story this year is the way in which various Midwestern states seem to be in a race to see who can export the most crazy. Obviously, Wisconsin is leading the race thanks to Governor Walker's crusade to break faith with public workers over legitimately negotiated benefits. Michigan for their part has State Senator Bruce Caswell who proposed legislation dictating that children in the state's foster care system would only be allowed to use their $80/year clothing allowance in thrift shops to ensure the funds aren't used for anything else - like medicine or school supplies. Caswell quickly backtracked, presumably after public response convinced him that the political future for someone who makes Dickensian factory owners look charitable looked pretty dim.

Not to be outdone, Minnesota has given America (and the world) Michelle Bachmann. On a lower-key note, though still crazy, is the Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean calling an acclaimed author a thief (among other things) in relation to payment for a 2010 speaking engagement at a small-town library that came from a fund intended to enable small-town libraries to host speakers they might not otherwise be able to afford. This might not have gotten much press outside of Minnesota except that the writer happened to be the very popular Neil Gaiman. A May 4th story in the Minnesota Star Tribune, who had already written a story in
2010 questioning the payment to Gaiman, encapsulated Dean's comments as follows. 

"Dean also singled out a $45,000 payment of Legacy money that was made last year to science fiction writer Neil Gaiman for a four-hour speaking appearance. Dean said that Gaiman, "who I hate," was a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota."

Putting aside the name-calling aspect of the comments, which really should be beneath an elected official at this level, what's most fascinating is hearing a Republican like Dean come out against the supposedly infallible free market system. According to Gaiman's account of the events, he accepted the speaking engagement reluctantly, because he was told that the library in Stillwater was in danger of losing the money (which could only be used to hire speakers) from future budgets if not used by a certain. Gaiman did the performance, gave much of the money to charity and went back to his day job (i.e. writing), all along demonstrating a considerable degree of class.

In contrast, Dean’s remarks were clueless every step of the way as shown by his suggestion that Gaiman atone for his capitalist misdeeds by donating his time for charitable purposes, despite the fact that the author had already donated his post-tax earnings to charities. From the tone of Dean's various remarks, including the semi-apology apparently made at the directive of his mother, one can intuit that Dean’s reason for picking on Gaiman was that the write could be painted as an oddball artist and probably someone who wouldn’t fight back. What Dean didn't reckon with was how many of the Gaiman's many followers would follow his suggestion and flock to the legislator's website to voice their disapproval, crashing it in the process.

Obviously, it's nice to see a bully get some comeuppance, but it's sad that this ever was a story. As with most political issues, there is a reasonable debate to be had as to whether $45,000 was an excessive fee for a small library to pay an author, even a popular one, but that has nothing to do with the writer and everything to do with elected officials who conveniently forget their free-market principles when it comes to the arts. Normally, when an elected official makes inane comments like saying that his libelous attacks on a science fiction writer had made him enemies among Star Trek fans, you'd think they were bring disrepute upon their part of the country. As it stands, though, when you're in the company of people like Caswell, Walker and Bachmann comments like that almost pass for sensible discourse. I feel for my friends and family in the Midwest if this is the best political "leadership" the region can muster.