I started hearing this in 2006 and 2008, where people in the cities don’t know who we are — “We’re real American.”
And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” I never saw it that way. And now it’s just something like this, “You can’t go to Minneapolis.” It’s, “You can’t do this.” Well, the fact of the matter is, when you look at it, you have more population, you have more of these things happening. And there was this desire to just make these undesirable places.
They do it to San Francisco. And just to be candid, last week was my first time in San Francisco, and there I am driving around, and I’m like a kid again. I’m like, “America is so awesome. San Francisco is just the greatest.” And that’s the way people would feel. Go out to the boundary waters of Minnesota. Go to Northern Minnesota and look where the mining has happened for a hundred years. These were the beauty of America. And they’ve demonized these places.
-- Tim Walz